When he died he would not end. The world would end.

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.

Some conjurers say that number three is the magic number, and some say number seven. It's neither my friend, neither. It's number one. (Fagin)

You mean she doesn’t intend to blow me up before the ceremony?” said Kai, taking the box. “How disappointing.

Next to love, kindness is the most beautiful thing.

I laughed uneasily. “Jeez, you guys make it sound like I was on the brink of death or something. I just fainted.” (Sabina)

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

It's hard to write any good song. It seems more rewarding, or maybe just easier, to write sad ones.

Every morning you have a choice. Are you going to be a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Positive thinking will energize you.

So is this how it works Doctor? You never interfere with the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there are children crying?

Religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge.