Love was action. It came to you. It was not a choice.

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.

Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop. I'm oblivious by nature.

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

No matter how much we love a book, the experience of reading it isn't complete until we can give it to someone who will love it as much as we do

Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.

You are always someones favorite unfolding story

Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list.

There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.

Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.

Permission to disregard your orders, Underqueen." "Permission not granted. Permission categorically denied.

The only risk of failure is promotion.

Never give in and never give up.

The people in Japan know more about the history of jazz and the musicians than the people in the United States do.

The North African mule talks always of his mother's brother, the horse, but never of his father, the donkey, in favor of others supposedly more reputable.

Heaven often seems distant and unknown, but if He who made the road... is our guide, we need not fear to lose the way.

Only lies and evil come from letting people off.

I really don't like conference calls to be honest. It's always something that bloody happens with a conference call - universally never works out.

The two main hazards of psychoanalysis: that it might fail, and that if it succeeds, you'll never be able to forgive yourself for all those wasted years.

Tod Goldberg has long been one of the most interesting writers around, and Gangsterland is his biggest and best book so far.