Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled.

The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.

The whisper of the dusk is night shedding its husk.

Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.

Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.

Only once in a generation does anything as fresh as a vomiting detective come along.

The hands of every clock are shears, trimming us away scrap by scrap, and every time piece with a digital readout blinks us towards implosion.

Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.

Any drunk who has tried to put his car where a lamppost stands is a self-educated physicist.

Given my heritage and the ordeal of my childhood, I sometimes wonder why I myself am not insane. Maybe I am.

You will realize your life is most peaceful when you actually stop caring or worrying about things and situations you can not change.

The only way to overcome fear and doubt is to go against them.

There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.

My daughter is not an object to flash around or a prized item to put on display.

You grow and evolve and as you do that, your art hopefully reflects that change and that growth.

Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.

Me and my band and crew have always lived by the code: 'Work hard, play harder.'

As an artist, I didn't think I was gonna get an Oscar. I've never said this, but I've never looked at it like, "We're gonna win Best Supporting Actor."

When we started publishing, you had to be better than good. You had to be excellent. But as long as people are reading, I don't care what they're reading.

The morphlings from District 6 are in the camouflage station, painting each other's faces with bright pink swirls.