I read a little bit of nonfiction and a lot of poetry. I think of poetry as my shot of whiskey when I don't have time to savor a whole bottle of wine.

Language is the writer's only tool - we really don't have anything else - but our language contains within it our entire experience of the world.

We are surrounded by story.

A good writer sells out everybody he knows, sooner or later.

Guilt is glorious when it's well earned.

Heightism is the last unchecked prejudice.

The writing itself is the thing that generates stories for me.

When I'm not writing, I can't make sense of out anything. I feel the need to make some sense and find some order, and writing fiction is the only way I've found that seems to begin to do that.

I'd like to be better at short, snappy answers.

Without explaining why, and, most of all, without naming other authors or books, I can only say my novels are influenced by love and death.

We are at the mercy of time, and for all the ways we are remembered, a sea of things will be lost. But how much is contained in what lingers!

The best way to look back at life fondly is to meet it - and those along your journey - warmly, kindly and mindfully

Each of us encounters many diverse experiences that make us grow and transform, but we seek to return to our roots, which is quietude.

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling picked from the unfit to do the unnecessary.

Even if the dramatic scenes are really hard, if you're happy with what you have and it's been creative and you had a good time with the people you worked with, that's a good day.

Habit may lead us to belief and expectation but not to the knowledge, and still less to the understanding, of lawful relations.

The most honest of men is the one who thinks and acts best, but the most powerful is the one who writes and speaks best.

A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

The crowd is made of little gods, and there is still no heaven.

I just don't believe you're capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.

Love for thy love , and hand for hand I give.