it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

Brain without heart is far more dangerous than heart withoutbrain.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse.

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads.

The only true measure of success is the amount of joy we are feeling.

Success is like a mountain in front of you that keeps growing. If you're not careful, it will take up your whole life.

It's not always what you know, but who you know. Get out and meet people.

Where I'm coming from is that nothing I do is from a sense of obligation.

Hillary Clinton doesn't have any natural talents. Hillary doesn't have any natural connection to people. Hillary doesn't have any charisma, magnetism. All of that has to be manufactured by the media.

[Jazz musicians] couldn't cut rock. I had to be more limited and specific about what I was doing.