I think there is a sense of last things in my work that probably comes from a Catholic childhood.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

Human improvement is from within outward.

I’m sorry if I’m not flirting with you. I’m kind of spoken for.

If science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly. We should always adopt a view that accords with the facts.

I don't want to be a prisoner in a palace, living in such a constricted way - too tight!

The discovery of natural law is a meeting with God.

I wanted to finish on a stronger note. Fighting through that routine, you know what I was like, 'I'm just fighting through.'

Emotional attachment to Maya is totally painful, this is a bad bargain.

She turned towards me and narrowed her eyes...narrowed them horizontally, not vertically.

I have a paralyzing fear of snakes.

A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.