No one wanted me to be a conscientious objector. My parents certainly didn't want it. My teacher and mentor, Joe Brearley, didn't want it. My friends didn't want it. I was alone.

One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.

There are some things one remembers even though they may never have happened.

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.

The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.

Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you ... at any time.

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.

I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.

I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.

Don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

This particular nurse said, Cancer cells are those which have forgotten how to die. I was so struck by this statement.

You must choose the life you live at the time you live it.

Let go of the past and cling to the future.

If people elsewhere want to do everything possible to make it to America, people in America must do all things possible to make it to heaven!

Writing, is not a race. Is to distill the soul letter by letter in a slow and delicate process that will take years.

If you’re not working on the best idea right now, you’re wasting your time & money

I cannot tell how the truth may be I say the tale as 'twas said to me.

Sleep helps you win at life.

I want Pinterest to be human. The Internet's still so abstract... To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world.

I'm at a point in my life where I have three kids. I'm a father, and you start to take stock and measure yourself as a man and see where there's room for growth.

You can't just take care of everybody else all the time.