Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.

The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.

If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good

Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

A gracious heart, a gentle spirit.

I'm going to tell you a secret:You don't have to believe every thought that pops into your head.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

I really do love bluesy-jazzy music, so I love Etta James, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. I love that they have soul in their voices - I think that's something important is having.

The more noise, the higher I get.

I never played drunk. Hung over, yes, but never drunk.

The short story form allows evocation, suggestion, implication. Its potency often lies in what it does not say.

Just because you're a belter doesn't make you funny; it just means that's how your pipes are set up.

Let's see, for breakfast Rickey will have bacon and eggs, and grits if I can get 'em.

The difference between management and administration (which is what bureaucrats used to do exclusively) is the difference between choice and rigidity.