Society is divided into two classes, the shearers and the shorn.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

The sunset glow of self-possession.

There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.

The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.

Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth.

Intelligent people make many mistakes because they cannot believe the world is really as foolish as it is.

We take our colors, chameleon-like, from each other.

Kindness is the ability to love someone in such a way that she will remember your kindness for the rest of her life.

My Muse sits forlornShe wishes she had not been bornShe sits in the coldNo word she says is ever told.

If you become the light of peace there will be no darkness of hatred.

I opened the doors to Hell and walked in gleefully.

In the Top 40, half the songs are secret messages to the teen world to drop out, turn on, and groove with the chemicals and light shows at discotheques.

Whatever we focus on determines what we become.

If Elmore Leonard met Jim Thompson down a dark alley at midnight they might emerge a week later with thick beards, bloodshot eyes and the manuscript for THE BIG O.

That's the way I will write characters, put a fair amount of myself in them, and then everyone else who was like that person, I will pick and choose.

We have parts of our system which are overwhelmed by regulation. It wasn't the absence of regulation that was the problem. It was despite the presence of regulation you got huge risks built up.

I must go deeper and even stronger into my treasure mine and stint nothing of time, toil, or torture.