Love is more pleasant once you get out of your twenties. It doesn't hurt all the time.

You really can't blame the military for wanting to go to war [in Iraq]. They've got all these new toys and they want to know whether they work or not.

I am not retiring. Writers don't retire. Writers never stop writing.

One day about 10 years ago the door to my office opened and who walked in but Bill Gates.... Seemed like a nice guy and has done more with his money than most billionaires. But that's as far as I want to go being kind to Bill Gates.

We're all torn between the desire for privacy and the fear of lonliness. We need each other and we need to get away from each other. We need proximity and distance, conversation and silence. We almost always get more of each than we want at any one time.

The great virtue of being alone is that your mind can go its own way.

The average bright young man who is drafted hates the whole business because an army always tries to eliminate the individual differences in men.