I think my favorite fact about myself is that I have never been dismayed by a critic's bilge or bile, and have never once in my life asked or thanked a reviewer for a review.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

I felt a taste of that other kind of contentment that doesn't come from acquiring information or getting praise or building a resume, the kind that is just there, like a hidden pearl.

Television has always been something you watch; now, increasingly, it is also something you do.

apathy is about as near to the undertaker as you can get.

The UK crowds always have a lot of energy, and I've done some milestone shows there that I'm very proud of.

Think of your woods and orchards without birds! Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams As in an idiot's brain remembered words Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!

If you fall in love with 2 people at once choose the second one because if you truly loved the first one you never would have fell in love with the second one

I don't think at my age... you can start ruling people out in politics.

It's a long climb up Fools' Hill.

A true gentleman doesn’t prefer blondes. A true gentleman doesn’t have any preferences whatsoever.

I don't go to the start line expecting to win. I go to the start believing this could be the day when incredible things happen