Words and a book and a belief that the world is words.

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.

I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?

This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

Sometimes God seems to be killing us when He is actually saving us.

I like my parents but they are just not good parents. They are nice enough people. I'm not interested in hurting their feelings.

I get along great with directors, but I think some producers would tell you I'm a pain. They may say I'm tough to work with, but I have a great passion for what I do. I believe in fighting for it.

Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

With books we stand on the shoulders of giants.

You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.

More and more countries of the world have decided that corporations do a better job of generating and deploying capital than do states.

Its the publicity function of Amnesty that I think has made its name so widely known, not only to readers in the world, but to governments - and thats what matters.

The reason I so rarely break promises to other people? It breaks trust. Without trust, there's no relationship.

Fashion is life-enhancing and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.