You think you're the foreigner here, and I'm the American, and I just look the other way while the President or somebody sends down this and that . . . to torture people with. But nobody asked my permission, okay? Sometimes I feel like I'm a foreigner, too.

If you ask me, when something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can.

If we can't, as artists, improve on real life, we should put down our pencils and go bake bread.

So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flapper ball. Here's what it said on the package; I kept it till I knew it by heart: 'Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.' That's kind of my philosophy about men. I don't think there's an installation out there that could use all my parts.

A woman without a man -- a condition of 'manlessness' -- is defined as alone. But a single mother is less alone than the average housewife.

It's frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known.

Don't wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.