There are moments when rather than reforming the human race I'd like to abandon it altogether and go become, say, one of Dr. O'Reilly's macaques, which have to have more sense.

Fred Astaire is my hero. I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it's possible to be an artist and a good person.

I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha (Christie).

I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.

And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.

It is my belief that everything you need to know about the world can be learned in a church choir.

Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?

I have great faith in the future of books - no matter what form they may take - and of science fiction.

Science fiction is an amazing literature: plot elements that you would think would be completely worn out by now keep changing into surprising new forms.

To do something for someone or something you loved-England or Shakespeare or a dog or the Hodbins or history-wasn't a sacrifice at all. Even if it cost you your freedom, your life, your youth.

Writers are too neurotic to ever be happy.

She wielded the ultimate weapon against him, his kryptonite - her touch.

Fruits of the spirit in the man attract others to him.

The best companion and helper is admirable morals.

Long before I was a star, I was a fan.

There is something so horrifying and so sad when people are living alone. That is why the old and lonely come to us.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

Although reading the classics in Latin in school may be not as fulfilling as it would be at a more mature age, few scientists can afford the time for such diversion later in life.

I realize that life isn't perfect - it can't be perfect. I can drive myself nuts trying to make it perfect, or I can just have a lot of fun with the kids.

All well bred men should have mastered the art of singing and dancing.

Poets don't finish poems, they abandon them.