I think I would have written five times as much as I've written if I didn't have this terrible sense of perfection.

She is pure Alice in Wonderland, and her appearance and demeanor are a nicely judged mix of the Red Queen and a Flamingo.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

The wind is us-- it gathers and remembers all our voices, then sends them talking and telling through the leaves and the fields.

Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.

I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.

When you've got nowhere to turn, turn on the gas.

Well, I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.

A man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat. He stores up a lot of poison.

Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act which deprived a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

Look, I learned from your uncle that when the universe turns out to be insane, the wise man embraces insanity.

Moreover, I wish to assure you both that I did not make any amorous advances on female monkeys.

What is a well-chosen collection of pictures, but walls hung round with thoughts?

The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn't quite outweigh how important it was for me to make my music the way I knew it needed to be made.

The hand of bone and sinew and flesh achieves its immortality in taking up a pen. The hand on a page wields a greater power than the fleshly hand ever could in life.

When you do a film, you start to get the character, and then it disappears for a year before it's released and you get feedback.

I seem to produce a novel approximately once every three years.

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.

I actually have more shoes than anyone will ever know.