Know that diamonds and roses are as uncomfortable when they tumble from one's lips as toads and frogs: colder, too, and sharper, and they cut.

Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.

We wrapped our dreams in words and patterned the words so that they would live forever, unforgettable.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from 'Instructions')

Recounting the strange is like telling one's dreams: one can communicate the events of a dream, but not the emotional content, the way that a dream can colour one's entire day.

On the whole, stories don't write themselves.

Never use five words if you can get away with one, eh? I've known dead men talk more than you do.

I was not so old that I would deny my own senses.

If we do not fight to create a future there will be no future for any of us.

I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories. It's as close to a credo as I have or will, I suspect, ever get.

Because stories start in minds-- they aren't artifacts or natural phenomena.

If you're a Christian you can't have an "I'm better than" attitude toward anyone because everybody is somebody for whom Jesus died.

All of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.

No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated.

It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but the empty reed.

We do have the nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, that's an enforcement consequence, action for action, follow on. We have a plan, we will watch them, we will be vigilant.

After I had done a handful of cartoons I was satisfied with, I started submitting them to the magazines.

starvation is a shame and disgrace to the world and totally unnecessary in modern times.

**Did you realize how much a kiss says, Philip???** Oh My Angel I doooo....A KISS is the beginning of, middle to, and end of most things I love about life.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.

I think sometimes there's a lot of subliminal messaging in everything.