The excitement of anticipation was *almost* equal to the thrill of lovemaking.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

Never confuse faith, or belief — of any kind — with something even remotely intellectual.

Keep passing the open windows.

Half my life is an act of revision.

You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .

Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality

To trust someone is to take the greatest risk of all. (180)

You can't tell a 6-year-old your sister is going to die.

... love moves the world along.

The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.

And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.

I see myself as someone who's been saved by writing. God knows what I would have been, become or how I would have ended up without it.

If you are unable to understand the cause of a problem it is impossible to solve it.

It's been strange and weird watching the other girls at the U.S. Olympic trials just because I was training to be out there myself.

I deliberately decided to write a kind of guide to leather bars for straight people, for people not into leather, so that people could see what it was all about.