Now that Scotty has entered the realm of myth, everyone wants to own him. And maybe they should. Doesn't a myth belong to everyone?

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years.

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.

Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

I am somebody. I am me. I like being me. And I need nobody to make me somebody.

My father, his spirit is with me constantly, and I'm a believer in that world and the world of dreams and that stuff.

You don't really get to pick and chose what you would like to be doing. But I've been very fortunate, and I think water seeks its own level. You do gravitate towards things that you would get off on.

Destiny is for losers. It's just a lame excuse for letting things happen to you instead of making them happen.

I'm intensely private, and I've openly shown annoyance at the paparazzi.

Americans are hungry for a discussion on policy solutions to the problems in their communities that work.

Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end

I do not believe there is any royal road to success as an athlete any more than there is to others in everyday life.

It's the same the world over. A Hollywood production comes to town, and the locals all turn movie crazy.

I was so cold I almost got married.