I remember a point in [writing] the story where I said, "This isn't working, I should go and buy something at the supermarket or my wife will kill me." Then I said, "No, I'll go on."

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.

My father - I once asked him what was his greatest achievement. He said his greatest achievement was that he fought in five wars in the infantry, always on the front line, and never hurt anybody.

According to Gur's theory of boredom, everything that happens in the world today is because of boredom: love, war, inventions, fake fireplaces - ninety-five percent of all that is pure boredom.

It's kind of a reflex for me to ignore my own wishes and think about other people first.

If you want to learn how to be happy, you have to know what is sadness first.

Rabbits are played. Nowadays it's all about the turtles. Tell them it's a ninja, they'll freak.

The one who swallows cactuses with spines should not complain about hemorrhoids.

Writing a story is kind of like surfing, as opposed to the novel, where you use a GPS to get somewhere. With surfing, you kind of jump.

For three months, a person sits and looks at you, imagining a kiss.

Most of the Jewish writer friends I have are American, and I feel closer to them because they're always obsessed with one issue - identity: what does it mean to be an American Jew?

Every challenge is an opportunity for spiritual growth.

In the search for an author [of Hebrews] we are virtually stumbling over Priscilla. No longer is it feasible to pretend she isn't there.

Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors.

Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.

I'm afraid everything I was is gone and all that's left is everything I'm not.

If the dance is right, there shouldn't be a single superfluous movement.

I would jump down Etna for any public good - but I hate a mawkish popularity.

How did you die?" "We er....drowned in a bathtub." "All three of you?" "It was a big bathtub.

Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind.

The very genetic determinism I posited in World's End as a way of shaking off my inherited demons is being proven in fact as we map out the human genome.