My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.

To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.

God, how we get our fingers in each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of each other.

My job is to entertain people by playing my music well. You shouldn't really be upset because people like you, should you?

If you find yourself cutting corners, go in a circle instead

Stories are Life’s instruction manuals.

If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off... no matter what they say.

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service.

Children, to me, are of the utmost importance. They're really the future, aren't they?

If we're going to live an ethical life, it's not enough just to follow the thou-shalt-nots. … If we have enough, we have to share some of that with people who have so little.

Obamacare premiums are of no concern to people in the establishment. Same thing with illegal immigration, same thing with trade deals.

It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else.