If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.

There are more beauty parlors than there are beauties.

New ideas are one of the most overrated concepts of our time. Most of the important ideas that we live with aren't new at all.

My advice is not to wait to be struck by an idea. If you're a writer, you sit down and damn well decide to have an idea. That's the way to get an idea.

I'd be more willing to accept religion, even if I didn't believe it, if I thought it made people nicer to each other but I don't think it does.

Numbers tend to give the impression that there's more order in the world than there is.

My most serious character flaw is that I don't deny myself much.