Notoriety and a fat bank balance must come after everything else is finished and done.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.

A big secret to life is when you learn that learning is just as entertaining as entertainment, but with long term benefits.

Do not let the fear of unknown deter you from trying.Keep trying until you succeed.

This body had carried me through a hard life. It looked exactly the way it was supposed to.

My kids used to do things to aggravate me, too. I'd take them to a game, and they'd want to come home with a different player.

In comedy it helps if there's a friendly atmosphere on the set.

Every cookie is a sugar cookie. A cookie without sugar is a cracker.

A friend is someone who knows you and loves you for what you were and who you are, and who also shares your hopes and dreams for who you can become.

Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action

The strangest part of being so well known is definitely getting a New Yorker profile. It's a wonderful, strange process, like seeing yourself through a distorting mirror.

Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious.