When life attains a crisis, man’s focus narrows. […] The world becomes a stage of immediate concern, swept free of illusion.

Then he laughed and she laughed. And quivering with the movement of the train, the dead man seemed to laugh too.

I kissed her, a long hard kiss. Because baby didn't know it, but baby was dead, and in a way I couldn't have loved her more.

There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living.

There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot – things are not as they seem.

You've got forever; and somehow you can't do much with it. You've got forever; and it's a mile wide and an inch deep and full of alligators.

I'd been chasing females all my life, not paying no mind to the fact that whatever's got tail at one end has teeth at the other, and now I was getting chomped.

I found out long ago that the place where the law is apt to be abused the most is right around a courthouse.

If the Good Lord made a mistake in us people it was in making us want to live when we’ve got the least excuse for it.

A weed is a plant out of place.

I ain't saying you're a liar, because that wouldn't be polite. But I'll tell you this, ma'am. If I loved liars, I'd hug you to death.

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.

Art begins . . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.

A freedom given up is not so easily regained.

Some people are molded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.

Good dialogue is not real speech-it's the illusion of real speech.

All I say is, if you cannot ride two horses you have no right in the circus.

I don’t want to say I’ll be back at the top of my game because everybody’s gonna think I’m crazy and it’s the old player not letting go sort of thing, but that’s what it’s gonna be.

I am excited to have the opportunity to help provide the same swim instruction that I received as a child when I was enrolled in a water safety class at five-years-old.

All younger people should know something. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.

You can be a dreamer, but don't live in your bed.