That was a mistake, I guess, going out to California. They have these things called guidance counselors in high school. They drink a lot of herbal tea.

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world.

I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal.

I worked probably fewer jobs than most people, or fewer real soul-killing jobs than other people. I've been a typist, a typesetter, a keyliner, cappuccino-maker. I think I've been pretty lucky.

My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness.

As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of most days.

A mathematical proof is beautiful, but when you're finished, it's really only about one thing. A story can be about many things.

That's where I live, a junkyard in a neighborhood of junkyards. We have three tractors from the 1940s and '50s, several old pickup trucks, and a pile of scrap metal.

I have a second-degree black belt in Okinawan kobudo weapons training.

Time is never wasted coming to an old man bar.

I grew up with donkeys, as well as horses, but I'm more interested in donkeys.

Many injuries and deaths can be prevented through an understanding of the dangers of power lines, electrical appliances, extension cords, and lightning.

To paint comic books as childish and illiterate is lazy. A lot of comic books are very literate - unlike most films.

My mother's bottom line was truth to her values. It meant bringing your heart and your humanity to work.

Words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven.

I was never that interested in movies. I was interested in them as a thing, but I didn't want to make movies. I always wanted to draw and paint.

I hate that word — 'lucky.' It cheapens a lot of hard work

We fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of fear and pain.

People have really strong images of what church is, and it's almost certainly not the same as mine.

Nothing proves the truth of surrealism so much as photography. The Zeiss lens has unexpected faculties of surprise!

Speaking as one who has abused privilege a long time, I tell you, it's great to be alive.