Only the luckless, the petty or the deranged [end] up in court.

It is a negative sort of achievement, she thinks, to have spent a life warding something off.

Discovery is the joy.

As I see it, my job as a writer isn't to judge, but to take a reader as far inside as I can and let them dwell there.

My interest is always to get as deeply as I can into the minds and spirits of the characters and let the readers empathize or judge as they will.

Sound systems are what turn cars into escape vehicles, even if you've got nowhere to go.

...I did what most kids do when their world feels destroyed. I tried to care less about what remained...It was untrue, of course.

...I did what most kids do when their world feels destroyed. I tried to care less about what remained...This was untrue, of course.

It struck me then, for the first time, how unethical anxiety is, how it voids the reality of other people by conscripting them as palliatives for your own fear.

My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.

I became very successful at a young age... I had lots of opportunities and lots of power and had no idea how to focus it.

I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free. Amarillo by morning, Amarillo is where I'll be.

A good song is like a mannequin - its form makes sense, but there's no life. There should be memorable melody, thoughtful lyric, appropriate arrangement.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

Plum puffs can't minister to a mind diseased or a world that's crumbling to pieces

Connect. Embrace. Liberate. Love somebody. Just one person. And then spread that to two. And as many as you can. You'll see the difference it makes.

I was about twenty and the Beatles were meditating and I heard about it and they had a center in New York and I came to the center and I learned about it.

Is it not the case that many a life journey starts out in the opposite direction to its destiny?

So doth the greater glory dim the less: A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by.