I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you're trying to be a writer because it's the only apprenticeship we have, it's the only way of learning how to write a story.

Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.

Amsterdam is like the rings of a tree: It gets older as you get closer to the center.

I feel like crying, so I must be crying, but it's impossible to tell because I'm underwater.

...And in freedom, most people find sin.

So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.

A taste so profound and complex that it can't even be compared to other tastes, only to emotions. Cheesy waffles, I was thinking, tastes like love without the fear of love's dissolution.

My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.

The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.

All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm.

I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.

She was everything real in a world of make-believe.

Opportunity will not only knock on the door when you are ready, it will stand just next to the door to open it.

Wisdom knows the way. Understanding sees the way. Passion feels the way. Love goes all the way.

I think everyone should learn how to code.

You are damned, and we wish to share your damnation.

My music was typically continental - nothing like, say, The Beatles.

The production of a work of art is determined by the material and intellectual climate in which a man lives and dies.

Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.

An Oscar is a total honor. It's thrilling, and on the one hand, it means a lot of things, and on the other hand, it doesn't really mean anything. It's a moment in time.

The older I get, the more I can't stand violence and have a hard time with seeing people die in horrific ways. It gets harder and harder to watch and deal with that stuff.