...it's closeness that does you in. Never get too close to people, son.

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest.

It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

Pray; and as you pray, surrender; and as you surrender, believe.

It is true that the mental aspect of kung-fu is the desired end; however, to achieve this end, technical skill must come first.

One of the keys to thinking big is total focus. I think of it almost as a controlled neurosis, which is a quality I've noticed in many highly successful entrepreneurs.

Don't agonise, organise.

Art is by nature promotional, pushing beliefs, broadcasting status, aggrandizing personalities.

I've never worked with an actor that I did not like.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

Life is a series of tests; but if you pass your tests, you look back upon them as good experiences.

I'm really grounded and quite hippie, wanting to nurture and have children and be quiet.

I gratefully look forward to oblivion, but I must be sure of it