When I look at myself, I don't see the man I wanted to be.

I leave pansies, the symbolic flower of freethought, in memory of the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, who stood for equality, education, progress, free ideas and free lives, against the superstition and bigotry of religious dogma. We need men like him today more than ever. His writing still inspires us and challenges the 'better angels' of our nature, when people open their hearts and minds to his simple, honest humanity. Thank goodness he was here.

We struggled together, and sometimes, we struggled with one another... We took care of one another... In the end, we kept faith in each other.

My dad had a very difficult life, a hard struggle all the time at work. I've always felt like I'm seeking his revenge.

There's an opera out on the turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley.

Once you get into the book, you've got to constantly find your - the rhythm of your prose. And it ends up being quite a musical experience either way.

In the past, some of the songs that were the most fun, and the most entertaining and rocking, fell by the wayside because I was concerned with what I was going to say and how I was going to say it.