One of the odd things about middle age, he concluded, was the strange decisions a man discovers he's made by not really making them, like allowing friends to drift away through simple neglect.

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.

And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.

People sometimes get in the habit of being loyal to a mistake.

You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel.

Have you ever noticed that when people use the expression 'I have to say', what follows usually needn't be said?

What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?

My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation.

I was the one who did come through that door. You were the one she was waiting for.

Whatever happened, I'd met my person, the one my soul connected to.

Even when you don't see old age coming, you can wave it goodbye

The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.

Dying to be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing.

What I've lost in years I've gained in wisdom. Bullshit, I haven't learnt one thing in the last 15 years that hasn't just depressed me more.

We have a right to expect a police force that protects our citizens and behaves in a responsible manner... in the American conscience there is no room for bigotry and racism.

We delude ourselves into believing that morality comes from somewhere else, whereas in reality we behave as we've been told to behave.

The process of introducing people to new music is amazing. It's a gift. One of the best parts of any day is when someone says, 'Hey, check out this new band...'

The truth is a fog, in which one man sees the heavenly host and the other one sees a flying elephant.

Our police, our hard-working police, that our extraordinarily committed and dedicated military personnel, I'm really pleased that they are getting a good paid parental leave scheme.