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.

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.

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

Mistakes are growth, and we learn not to do it again. But it doesn't make you a terrible person. That's important to me.

The iron bolt which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back.

All language is an aspiration to music.

...nuclear threats and nuclear weapons are the last argument of weak, stressed and irresponsible politicians. People must act very quicky to stop the movement to nuclear war.

It was the sinner that Christ came to help.

The power of art can break the shackles that bind and divide human beings.

This then is the age of reason.

Where ever fear shadows.... that always means there is a light shining somewhere.

The living will envy the dead.

Unless you love yourself, you can't love anybody. Be selfish.

I love myself when I am laughing. . . and then again when I am looking mean and impressive.