In my experience there is only one motivation and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

When I look at the moon, I can only see your joyful smile.

Your path will shine when you shine on your path!

An older author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years.

This was the noblest Roman of them all.

Rationality is what we do to organize the world, to make it possible to predict. Art is the rehearsal for the inapplicability and failure of that process.

The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession.

One of the biggest insurance mistakes boat owners make is endorsing their boats onto their homeowners policies, which may not cover their losses from a major storm.

Soldiers may grow a soul when turned to fronds, But here the thing's best left at home with friends.