My loathings are simple. stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

War is a contagion.

By comparing what we know today with what the ancients appear to have known we can guess at the kinds of wine they drank.

Listening to great music and art inspires me and recharges me.

I think were all really strong and we just need to keep working really hard. If we go out there and do our best well win again. All we need to do is hit.

Tell yourself right now and throughout today, that it's okay to draw away from the maddening crowd. Jesus did; so can you.

You can get it if you really want

A man in music, as one in love, either lives it or talks about it; seldom both.

You'll always have to deal with bastards, being lied to, deceived, slandered and ridiculed, but that's to be expected and you must thank heaven when you meet the exception.

Talking to you is only thinking to myself - made easier.

I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true.