The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.

If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.

If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.

Talent is the gift plus the passion - a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it.

Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity.

Never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity.

It's always painful when you're writing memoirs because you've got to go through the dark places, but it gives you a chance to find out the person you really are, not the person you thought you were.

Take care of him. And make him feel important. And if you can do that, you'll have a happy and wonderful marriage. Like two out of every ten couples.

I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.

Writing is an escape from a world that crowds me. I like being alone in a room. It's almost a form of meditation- an investigation of my own life.

I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud.

How can two people hate so much without knowing each other?

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

Every good band in the world was a cover band first. The Beatles were and the Stones were. Everybody was a cover band.

Tommy's [Gamble] an East Coast guy, so he kind of talks fast and in quick statements and phrases, so I understood him and he understood me, and we just hit it off.

I leave it to the faithful to burn each other's churches and mosques and synagogues, which they can be always relied upon to do

A man never feels more important than when he receives a telegram containing more than ten words.

After nine or 10 years of being interviewed, you start wanting to team up with the reporter and get the job done.

Happiness eludes us if we run after it.

The most important thing to understand about your pension is it only really counts on the day you put money in and the day you take money out.

I believe that God wants us to show respect.