People say great art is immortal. I say there's something mortal in it. It carries a glimpse of death.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

No headboards were broken.

The height of human achievement and glory, Muhammad.

Words never change. What changes is how one interprets them.

If we cannot do what we will we must will what we can.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

We will be fair, just, and compassionate to all, but our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens.

A slave- holder, who has decided to abolish slavery, does not consult his slaves whether they desire freedom or not.

The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.

I don't believe in using too much graphic violence, although I've done it. It's better to be suggestive and to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks in their minds.

We do not write as we want, but as we can.