It's not easy being so frightened of everything. And when I think of how much I've improved in the last year, I wonder when I'll ever get finished with making changes and be really grown up.

Pistachio nuts, the red ones, cure any problem.

When my father would yell at me, I told myself someday I'd use it in a book.

I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what comes next

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.

Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians.

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood.

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them

We spend our whole lives recovering from high school.

I made the choice long ago to write about real life. And life is both serious and funny.

Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell

An ever-growing, ever-constant relationship with God makes us certain of what we believe and enables us to run with endurance.

A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship.

One of the things that got me interested in genetics was the relationship between genes and environment. We are all dealt a certain deck of cards, but our environment can influence the outcomes.

It's mass confusion. I'm guessing on every shot. About the only thing left for me is acupuncture in the brain.

Kill us today or you'll have to kill us tomorrow.

It is doubtful that anyone has contributed more in a lifetime to the overall coverage of cricket.

When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.

Only three things can change our lives dreams, suffering and love

I began just writing poems and then fell in love with the form.

The Jewish bourgeoisie are our enemies, not as Jews but as bourgeoisie. The Jewish worker is our brother.