The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

How confident we are in our faith is how victorious we will be

The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful ones know that the most unprofitable thing ever manufactured is an excuse.

Stop talking, " she said boldly as she closed the distance between them until they were touching. "We can walk to the bedroom or you can carry me but if you don't decide soon I may just go insane.

If you want to be loved, love deeply and get lost in love.

To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely one with this universe.

Everything is always spur-of-the-moment. All of my tattoos I decide that second and do it.

I would rather sleep only five hours and wake up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. and be in control of my time than to sleep later and spend the entire day controlled by time.

We don't want any pot-smoking vaginas because that's disgusting. And I saw it once in Indonesia, and I've never been able to get it out of my head.

A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that god prefers some

I wanted to honor [George Gershwin]. He's a great American songwriter.