The point is, whether or not they show it at dinner parties, writers learn, by a necessity of their trade, to be the sharpest of observers.

Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see.

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human experience.

The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.

Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.

It is easy to tell confidence from pride. Confidence lifts, encourages, helps, and is full of gratitude. Pride demeans, mocks, destroys, and is bitter and resentful.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.

I grew up a Saints fan, an hour from the Superdome.

A lot of the things I do are the sort of things I think are funny.

We preach to men as if they were conscious they were dying sinners, they are not; they are having a good time.

Most people perceive moderates as timid, middle-of-the-roaders, who can't take a stand.

Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

Traveling the paths of greatness, even in someone else's footprints, is a vital means to acquiring skill.

The biggest problem I had with starring in Scrubs were the black doctors. I just had to keep telling myself this show was satire.