Plot a murder, you're saying. But every plot is a murder in effect. To plot is to die, whether we know it or not.

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.

If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they'd all still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another's fur.

I love watching American League games, you know what I mean?

Silkes and Satins put out the fire in the chimney.

I think the notion of success is fairly destructive. You can see elements of this surrounding any band becoming too popular. On the other hand, survival means you are doing fine.

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed

I am sensitive to life, and somehow acting comes to me. I cant explain it.

The things that really matter don't mix with idle chatter.

Do you think Christianity could have lasted for nearly two thousand years on its promises unless the Lord could deliver on them?

The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. That's why we go to movies and say, "Oh, the book is better."

Genes are a play within a play, not the interior monologue of the players.