Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.

New Orleans cuisine is Creole rather than Cajun.

In the Netherlands I read the first chapter of Exquisite Corpse to an audience that laughed in all the places I thought were funny - an experience I've never had in America!

The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.

You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.

You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

I can't heal your pain but I can see it. And you don't have to be lost. Not forever.

Young writers shouldn't be afraid of striving to emulate their favorites. It's a good way to learn, as long as you move on from it and don't publish too many of the results.

Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.

Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

China's idea of fair trade is government subsidies of its textile and apparel exports to the United States, currency manipulation, and forgiveness of loans by its government banks.

A man who owns a dog is, in every sense of the words, its master; the term expresses accurately their mutual relations. But it is ridiculous when applied to the limited possession of a cat.

There are some things only intellectuals are crazy enough to believe.

Persuasion isn't about the people you disagree with. It's about the fulcrum; the persuadable audience.

If I'm not comfortable in my own skin or confident in who I am, then I'm going to pick parts based on how people are going to view them, not based on what I find challenging or entertaining.

We never could design a building as beautiful as the trees.

There is a real vulgarity in the way women dress at the moment. They show off too much and try too hard. They don't understand where the line is between sexy and vulgar. I know where that line is.

He who learns the rules of wisdom, without conforming to them in his life, is like a man who labored in his fields, but did not sow

My first band, Kid Wicked, we did half covers and half originals.

Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationships with others.