Why do I write? The truth, the unvarnished truth, is that I haven't a clue.

Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song.

I don't believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.

Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes.

The music in his laughter had a way of rounding off the missing notes in her soul.

A loud voice is not always angry; a soft voice not always to be dismissed; and a well-placed silence can be the indisputable last word.

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go... And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

The intelligence community, for the most part, has no accountability at all; to the Congress, to us the American people, and so they feel that they above the law.

One should be able to return to the first sentence of a novel and find the resonances of the entire work.

a star dies in heaven every time you snatch away someone's dream.

Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power.

We live as if life will never end.

My phone is on my bed, whispering in my ear like a bottle of scotch to a recovering alcoholic, while the rain continues cackling at me through my window.

To solve your problems, stop worrying.

Let at least one word of my writings impregnate the reader's heart.

And all winds go sighing For sweet things dying.

You got a million drug laws now because the bosses figured there was more money in putting people in jail than taxing something anyone can grow on a window sill.

Vague expression permits the hearer to imagine whatever suits him and what he already thinks in any case.

If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs.

Dance is the stepchild of the arts.