Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion.

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life.

Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa)

The secret to a masterpiece is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

Its easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it

Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.

One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

Literature is a form of permanent insurrection. Its mission is to arouse, to disturb, to alarm, to keep men in a constant state of dissatisfaction with themselves.

Why destroy this Morn, by a Past that is dead & Gone and a Future not yet Born!

Listening to the siren song of more, we are deaf to the still small voice waiting in our soul to whisper, ‘You’re enough.

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

Certain things, if not seen as lovely or detestable, are not being correctly seen at all.

Kids always need a role model. I let them know you can do it, too, if you really want to.

It is better that one's customers come to one's shop than to have to look for them abroad.

It's been a mystery to me and a disappointment why conversation about health care reform hasn't turned more attention to the subject of food.

I'm an A student. I'm addicted to feedback, and I want to please people. That's sort of how I've gotten to where I am.

The true religion of America has always been America.

The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?