I started thinking about my relationship with my students; I'm this guy who comes in from book - and movie - land and descends on angel wings into their classroom.

I have offices all over the place and I avoid work everywhere. I don't like to write - I like to be finished.

You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road.

If I can tell you the story from beginning to end in five minutes, I'm ready to start writing.

I don't write police stories, per se, but I usually write about areas that are very panoramic, like Harlem, or the Lower East Side, or a small urban city like Jersey City.

I don't need all that much - I just need to know who my characters are and what kind of jam they're going to get into, and I'll write myself out of their jam.

The first thing to look out for after your first big success are drugs and screenplays.

Writers spend three years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet. It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day

I'd love to be a saxophonist. I don't know why, but I pretend I'm the saxophonist when I listen to music. I have about as much chance playing the sax as I do learning how to fly.

I write because I write - as anyone in the arts does. You're a painter because you feel you have no choice but to paint. You're a writer because this is what you do.

I write because I can't imagine not writing.

Badmind is such a treacherous emotion because the very thing someone badmind's you for, is the same thing he/she wants for themselves.

Writing is a Passion, Art is my Dreams, Crafting is something I Enjoy.The day one stops learning is the day one stops living.

Have fun! Live it up! Be happy! Enjoy every moment!

To some of us, the nights are too long. To some, the days.

Our word choices give a sentence its luster, and they deserve intense attention.

There is only one way to come into this world; there are too many ways to leave it.

Human beings are much better at breaking up than they are at getting together. The instinct to get together is very powerful, but it doesn't last long.

From a very young age my mother persuaded me that I could write for fun, but I had to have a proper job - very good advice.

I suffer the terrible disease of low self-esteem.

You don't drink and smoke that much, and womanize that much, unless you really want to be punished, I think.