I suppose if I didn't write for a living and it couldn't be published, I would have wanted to write anyway. I think there's something about the act of writing that organizes thoughts and memories.

I can't stand family secrets. I think they're such a toxic thing and they always leak out.

Trying to defend religion by invoking science is like claiming that three plus four equals ice cream.

For most of my life I have known how to control my feelings. If you can control your feelings, you can pretty much control your whole world. It's amazingly effective.

One of the rather unedifying truths about grief is it does block out more or less everything. It has a solipsistic quality to it.

Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.

The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.

A person has to be strong in life. A person must practice strength, even if they don't feel it.

The jazz and blues clubs are like the jazz and blues musicians - they're disappearing.

There are ten commandments, I've only broken three.

But you've got to be tough when consumed by desire, cause it's not enough just to stand outside the fire.

Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.

If reality is code, then it can be hacked in some way that we had not suspected before.

There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.