You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.

It's not the medium, but the quality of perception and expression, that determines the significance of art.

My guess is that the editor [Cincinnati Post] wanted his own Jeff MacNelly (a Pulitzer winner at 24), and I didn't live up to his expectations. My Cincinnati days were pretty Kafkaesque.

I think most of us would be horrified to meet ourselves and discover what everyone else already knows about us.

It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

Never argue with a six-year-old who shaves.

What I try to do in writing any character is to put myself in his position.