There is something about the unexpected that moves us. As if the whole of existence is paid for in some way, except for that one moment, which is free.

Forget the boring old dictum, 'Write about what you know.' Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that.

Never be satisfied with a first draft. In fact, never be satisfied with your own stuff at all, until you're certain it's as good as your finite powers can enable it to be.

In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.

The unfolding of a story is both as exciting and as difficult for each and every novel I've written, regardless of time and place.

The imagination conjures gifts; what the ungrateful, unsentimental part of the mind has to do is to unwrap them, find fault with them, see them for what they are and then alter them.

The process of rewriting is enjoyable, because you're not in that existential panic when you don't have a novel at all.

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

When you've finished a piece of work you've had a kind of love affair with it.

Kept falling in and out of it [sleep] like out of a boat or a tipping hammock.

At the moment, I'm toying with a new idea for a book, but fully engaged with writing screenplays, so the book idea - which needs empty space in my head - is barely formed yet.

Never ask questions you don't want the answer to.

Witchcraft is fun. It offers us a chance to play, to act silly, to let the inner child come out. Out of foolishness and play, creativity is born.

A final dirty joke.Another human punch line

Every human being has appetites difficult to control but far fewer have humility, gentleness, and an awareness of their weaknesses.

I really thought twice about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when that came in. I always was of a mind that it's an inherently stupid idea to put something like that in a glass case.

I try to sing whatever the music makes me feel. And we play so much music from the other records at shows that I hope no one will miss the old style too much.

Never flinch. Make up your own mind and do it.

I don't even know what an 'It' girl is. As far as I'm concerned, an 'It' girl is somebody who doesn't do anything except go to parties and get her photograph taken.

If there's a God, we must see him and if there's a soul we must perceive it. Otherwise, it's better not to believe.