It is my rather subversive opinion that a writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years.

Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

One day a long time from now you'll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That's when you'll finally produce the work you're capable of.

Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.

I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve. I was once described by my own son Stephen as an emotional ostrich.

I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.

And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.

She still cared for me, and the best way I could make amends to her was to be happy.I do have a knack for finding great women.

I am in love with what I do. I do it with great passion.

The satisfaction? The joy? That comes from solving problems and making things.

Men in their position cannot afford to seem anxious about anything. You know that’s a sign of weakness.

I stay glued to my piano and my work. I don't look up. I write, I produce, I do the next project, I do my job. I don't look up, and I try to be kind. I try to be kind to people. That's what I do.

Almost all unhappiness in life comes from the tendency to blame someone else.

Heaven Has No Favorites

Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.

If you nail a tool shed closed, how do you put the hammer away?

There's going to be a time when MS-13 fires an RPG into an Alexandria [Va.] police car, and [Americans] are going to say, 'What the hell happened?'