Once when I went over my work with my Washington University professor, the late great Stanley Elkin, he pointed to a passage of mine and said: Stop vamping. It has remained a caution.

Perhaps it's simply the dual nature of marriage, the proximity of violence and love.

Hardcover and paperback forever. Someone carve that into a tree.

You know, as I've grown older, my ideas about sin have changed. I used to believe that sins were things you did, but I don't think that now. I think sins are what you ignore.

People think of travel, of movement, as a kind of reprieve from life. But they're wrong. Movement isn't a reprieve. There is no reprieve. Movement is our permanent state.

It is possible, he thought, to be completely happy in marriage--though you must be willing to hold on when your ship was lost at sea and there was no guarantee of rescue.

As long as she could remember who she was, she was okay. She wouldn't go crazy. At least not today.

Be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful.

You can always add something to a bike, but you come to a point where you can’t take anything away and that's a fixed gear bike

If only we could see the joy of our guardian angel when he sees us fighting our temptations!

Behind the scenes there is a secretive, undeclared war of revenge that's already under way.

Darkroom work had, after all, never interested me except as a means to an end; the place I wanted to be was outside in the light.

I think Hillary Clinton is vulnerable, she is not liked, she is not overwhelmingly popular.

I've stolen a couple of hearts and they are in my private collection!

Not a mark on it. (Joe) Yeah. Wanna check the backseat, where Steele is sitting? I’ll bet there’s a big stain there. (Tee)

Writing is thought crystalized on a piece of paper, which can then be reviewed.