It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.

Never assume the obvious is true.

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.

To be accused of 'channeling' is to be dismissed as a ventriloquist's live dummy, derogated at not having a mind of one's own.

When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.

As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.

The Latin motto over Poindexter's new Pentagon office reads Scientia Est Potentia - "knowledge is power." Exactly: the government's infinite knowledge about you is its power over you.

Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.

Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.

A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the horizon.

I don't like to eat the same dish every day, so I read very different things.

Art is a wicked thing. It is what we are.

What I usually do is tell funny stories from the road, many of which are, of course, unprintable. But I don't actually have a joke. I don't tell jokes much. I tell little stories.

Among the reasons people keep sad stories to themselves is that they do not want anyone to feel sorry for them.

Deal with the small before it becomes large.

For straight, hetero people it's very easy to unintentionally say something that might not honor people's identities fully, and Grace Dunham is a really amazing educational resource.

And these are joys, like beauty, but skin deep.

In new work, we need to see the shadow, however faint, of previous literary effort.

And I would never accept a film because of the money. I have enough money.