Nobody tells people who are beginners - and I really wish somebody had told this to me - that all of us who do creative work... get into it because we have good taste.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.

The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.

We're Jews, my family, and Jews break down into two distinct subcultures: book Jews and money Jews. We were money Jews.

Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.

You can criticize yourself to a point to do something better, or you criticize yourself to a point where you inhibit yourself.

Great stories happen to those who can tell them.

We live in a world where joy and empathy and pleasure are all around us, there for the noticing.

It takes a while. It's gonna take you a while. It's normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.

You'd think that radio was around long enough that someone would have coined a word for staring into space.

It's not a terribly original thing to say, but I love Raymond Carver. For one thing, he's fun to read out loud.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

I do the same with my books...Nothing like a good argument in the margins with someone who's already said all they have to say on the subject.

Ah, wonderful sleep. I love to sleep. It's one of the things I'm really good at.

There is no substitute for thoroughgoing, ardent, and sincere earnestness.

I never did acid, I am just so high anyway.

They're saying now that Rick Santorum is gaining momentum because he's not Romney. And Mitt Romney was furious. He replied, 'Well, I can do that.

One of the big take-aways from a lot of economic theory is that people should engage in consumption smoothing.

One does not adopt a new idea, one slips into it.

It is difficult to whistle and drink at the same time.

If you're on to something but you start repeating it, that's the end of your career.