Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:that Scotland has so few trees.

Do what you want to do, and don't worry if it's a little odd or doesn't fit the market.

Why don't you like the foods I like?" he asks sometimes. "Why don't you like the foods I make?" I answer.

If you think of something, do it. Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that.

Like a tropical storm, I, too, may one day become ‘better organized.

There seemed to be three choices: to give up trying to love anyone, to stop being selfish, or to learn to love a person while continuing to be selfish.

My stories are sometimes closer to poems or meditations, but often there is at least a little narrative in them.

Art is not in some far-off place.

Work hard and meticulously. When in trouble, look closely at a text that is a good example of what you're trying to do. And be patient.

I'm a fierce editor! I don't edit out things that I began by saying, usually. The editing is on the micro level - a comma here, a word there.

I do see an interest in writing for Twitter. While publishers still do love the novel and people do still like to sink into one, the very quick form is appealing because of the pace of life.

The easiest way to remember your future wife’s birthday is to marry her on Super Bowl Sunday.

Character primarily is honesty with God, ones-self, and others."~R. Alan Woods [2013]

Our children are obese, either have or being threatened by diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and not socially adjusting properly to others because of a lack of fitness.

City needs creativity to retain the high performers who have lived there for years as well as to attract new, interesting residents.

I have never found in a human being loyalty that is comparable to a dog's loyalty.

He had the blue kite in his hands; that was the first thing I saw. And I can't lie now and say my eyes didn't scan it for any rips.

You want the actors to disappear into roles and stay under the radar, and that gets harder when someone is known for their actual personality, or who they seem to be.

I get psyched about coming onto a Broadway stage every night. it's very exciting. You develop a kind of gratefulness for it when you spend months trying to get a job.

I, alas, must present myself somewhat ignominiously as a chef in a busy kitchen. Somewhere a novel is bubbling on a back burner, an old attempt at history may come out of the freezer.

Reading is rapture (or if it isn't, I put the book down meaning to go on with it later, and escape out the side door).