I wouldn't mind writing a long book which is going to occupy me for the rest of my life.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

We resemble computers intellectually and animals emotionally.

Sixteen years I've pounded my head against the mentality of America, which...I'd say it's about an 8th grade emotional level.

You should always speak your mind, and be bold, and be obnoxious, and do whatever you want and don’t let anybody tell you to stop it.

A really busy person never knows how much he weighs.

The world may think it idiotic, Nor care at all we're symbiotic, But I will say at once and twice: I find it nice. I find it nice.

Everest for me, and I believe for the world, is the physical and symbolic manifestation of overcoming odds to achieve a dream

I believe in working with songs that have personal value for me.

There was quantum mechanics, string theory, and then there was the most mind-bending frontier of the natural world, women.

But you, you’ve always been the rain, the wind, inside my mind. I taste you when I sleep, when I wake, when I breathe.

If memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck.