Perhaps sound is only an insanity of silence, a mad gibber of empty space grown fearful of listening to itself and hearing nothing.

God pity the poor novelist.

I had thought that words were instruments of precision. Now I know that they devour the world, leaving nothing in its place.

All words are masks and the lovelier they are, the more they are meant to conceal.

Stories, like conjuring tricks, are invented because history is inadequate for our dreams.

In the long dusks of summer we walked the suburban streets through scents of maple and cut grass, waiting for something to happen.

I’m pleased by anything in myself that strikes me as not myself.

I saw that I was in danger of becoming ordinary, and I understood that from now on I would have to be vigilant.

His ambition was to insert his dreams into the world, and if they were the wrong dreams, then he would dream them in solitude.

We know nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Ennui had more distractions far more amusing than the automatons of a watchmaker in Mühlenberg.

And by the way, my belief is that if men were the ones getting pregnant, abortions would be easier to get than food poisoning in Moscow

Shine brightly thy inner light.

It is extraordinary how the human mind sees what it anticipates and is blind to anything that could not be dreamed of.

Science can improve lives in ways that are elegant in design and moving in practice.

I rather like bad wine; one gets so bored with good wine.

Do you wish people to speak well of you? Then do not speak at all yourself.

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

All of my favorite songs can bring me to tears. Some are rock, some are blues, some are love ballads. That's why I play music - to touch other people as I have been touched.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

Live performance really terrifies me. I haven't done it, really, in years. I think that's why I retired from my brief career in stand-up.