Like a lot of what happens in novels, inspiration is a sort of spontaneous combustion--the oily rags of the head and heart.

I don't believe less is more. I believe that more is more. I believe that less is less, fat fat, thin thin and enough is enough.

The peculiar dignity of men seen eating alone in restaurants on national holidays

Writing is an exercise in sculpture, chipping away at the rock until you find the nose.

Life's tallest order is to keep the feelings up, to make two dollars' worth of euphoria go the distance. And life can't do that. So fiction does.

I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope.

The furthest out is the only place to be.

It's fine, precise, detailed work, the infinitely small motor management of diamond cutters and safecrackers that we do in our heads.

But it's hard to talk about art. Maybe there should be a law against it, some First Amendment gag order like crying fire in a crowded theater.

The living and dead were thrown together, and the dead looked away first.-Description of Doomsday

Pittsburgh did not smell of mayonnaise that day.

Official dignity tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.

All those rumors about her being underweight are trash. She's [Calista Flockhart] gorgeous.

Man could not stay there forever. He was bound to spread to new regions, partly because of his innate migratory tendency and partly because of Nature's stern urgency.

The real trouble with the writing game is that no general rule can be worked out for uniform guidance, and this applies to sales as well as to writing.

My aim has been... to keep the United States... independent of all and under the influence of none.

If you're trying to be something you're not, whether it's an age or a certain type of personality, you're just going to be in misery. You have to own who you are, and part of who you are is your age.

It's the independent movies. Most of these people never even got a wrap party on their movie.

Surf is that music which is entirely about evoking something. There's never any vocals, so it's not about the lyrics, it's about the reverb.

You realise the responsibility of carrying a film on your shoulders when people are investing money in you and they recognise the hard work you have to put in.