Writers are always envious, mean-minded, filled with rage and envyat other's good fortune. There is nothing like the failure of a close friend to cheer us up.

To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

The declared meaning of a spoken sentence is only its overcoat, and the real meaning lies underneath its scarves and buttons.

I have never begun a novel which wasn't going to stretch me further than I had ever stretched before.

I'm interested in where we are, where we're going, where we've come from.

Swimming always cleans your soul

It's like standing on the edge of a cliff. This is especially true of the first draft. Every day you're making up the earth you're going to stand on.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

My greatest pleasure is to invent. My continual mad ambition is to make something true and beautiful that never existed in the world before.

Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.

The press has become so [word missing] about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people, a tremendous disservice.

I was drawn to the arts because I sensed that I was by nature Bohemian, and yet very conservative.

If you believe, as I do, that your employees truly are your most valuable asset, you will do whatever you can to help them do their jobs as well as possible.

I'm a draftsperson. And also, I really respond to love.

Unlike statements of fact, which require no further work on our part, lies must be continually protected from collisions with reality.

Practice like good musician; draw every day.

I know that people think of my work from the '70s as American, but I've been going to other places for a long time.

Our Nation owes a lasting debt of gratitude to all those selfless members of our Armed Forces who have risked their own freedom and safety to defend the the lives and liberty of others.

Opportunity is in the person, not the job.