Writing is an undertaking for the modest.

As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive of one's attending upon you; but to question the congruence of the complement is vain, if it exists.

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.

Your thorns are the best part of you.

Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.

Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.

Camels are snobbish and sheep, unintelligent; water buffaloes, neurasthenic-- even murderous. Reindeer seem over-serious.

Omissions are not accidents.

The hands are the heart's messengers.

The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.

When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser.

We are only as noble as our actions prove us to be.

I'm going to keep going until I succeed — or die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years.

Good luck needs no explanation.

My dad was such a great story-teller, a good teacher.

No one can find inner peace except by working, not in a self- centered way, but for the whole human family.

It’s a known fact that in certain contexts people’s great strengths become their epic failings.

I'm really interested in bands that sound nothing like anything I do or can do. That's what interests me.

The most important thing as a comic and a creator is to have a robust standpoint.

Sleep is no servant of the will; it has caprices of its own; when courted most, it lingers still; when most pursued, 'tis swiftly gone.

Positive doesn't mean unflawed: It means human and vulnerable. If you make a film and you're portraying the subject with respect, you're gonna do it in an honest way.