The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit.

My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly.

Night and gin and music-the right setting for peeling off the thin clinging layers of bullshit and finding one's way down closer to the essential self.

You have to start knowing yourself so well that you begin to know other people. A piece of us is in every person we can ever meet.

If the cards are stacked against you, reshuffle the deck.

A nonreader is somebody standing there in a blindfold.

Friendships, like marriages, are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable.

A man with a credit card is in hock to his own image of himself.

I want story, wit, music, wryness, color, and a sense of reality in what I read, and I try to get it in what I write.

Being an adult means accepting those situations where no action is possible.

[To] me organized religion, the formalities and routines, [is] like being marched in formation to look at a sunset.

There is only One holy Knowledge, the excellent knowledge of God.

I have associated myself with failed scientists in order to associate myself with failed irony. ("Metier: Why I Don't Write Like Franz Kafka")

Duty cannot exist without faith.

Heaven will smile on us again.

I don't believe in guilty pleasures. If you enjoy something, there's nothing guilty about it.

I just watched cartoons for three years, and that had a strong affect on me.

There is no reason to have problems between country and country, between government and government, when there is a separation of powers.

Now get some clothes on before the women around here are driven into a frenzy." He gave me a mournful look. "I'm afraid that'll happen with or without clothes, my dear.

Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.

There are two aspects to being competitive; one is to do with sports, and the other is about technical skills. Being able to recollect the moves and apply them when necessary is a critical aspect.