My neediness is not a hole to be filled but something beneath the skin scratching to get out.

As a result of manifest destiny, we gutted our resources.

Can we really be whoever we want to be, now that we’ve collected all that we are?

I love being a struggling artist; it makes me feel very alive.

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back.

I usually write in my underwear, with a space heater running full blast, and three dogs sleeping at me feet.

I know I've lost my mind. But I'm not concerned, because it's the first thing I've lost in a long time that actually feels good.

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.

I really believe in challenging myself, pushing myself to new places.

You have to find hope. Hope is such a shape shifter. You tend to look in the rearview mirror for hope, but when its gone, you have to look forward. You have to get in the van and keep driving on.

The jocks that used to stuff me into a locker when I was a punk rocker are my best buddies now.

Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.

That's when the dream is so far off it seems like it will never happen. It can be most anything you want it to be.

Great achievers are driven, not so much by the pursuit of success, but by the fear of failure.

There's something about a guy who admits he's a jerk that makes him forgiveable.

I do not think it is selfish to want to donate a kidney "only" to family members.

The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.

Women have a connection to life force and nurturing. They have a connection that men don't have. It doesn't mean one's better or more important, it's just a difference.

I kind of forgot about the inner child in me that loved the old horror movies.

I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it.

I wanted to do something for the minority Muslims living in the West, especially in the UK, to bring up their morale a bit. They need to be proud of their religion