The life of the professional writer - like that of any freelance, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist - is predicated on willpower. Without it there simply wouldn't be any remuneration, period.

If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride

A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.

To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown.

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

Desire outweighs footwork when it comes to crashing the glass

It could be argued that every age gets the comfort savagery writer it deserves.

Anyone can get a job, but do you have a purpose?

If you are in a bad relationship with anyone else, it is because you are in a bad relationship with yourself.

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.

The summer demands and takes away too much. /But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?

It's what you do when you grow up, apparently, face up to things you'd rather not and accept the fact that nobody is who you thought they were, maybe not even close.

One thing that I tell people all the time is, 'I'm not going to answer a call from you after nine o'clock at night or before nine o'clock in the morning unless it's an emergency.'

the capacity to work feeds on itself and has its own course of development. This is what artists have going for them.

Everyone loves a conspiracy.

The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.

There exists a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.

She's wearing a tight red sweater and a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker.

I respect the game that goes on of putting this against that, but I don't respect, nor do I enjoy, an awful lot of the actual programs that go on the air.

The only happy artist is a dead artist, because only then you can't change. After I die, I'll probably come back as a paintbrush.