I can manage a prose format as long as I keep closer to Laurence Sterne than to Henry James.

I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate.

I learned enough Hebrew to stagger through a meaningless ceremony that I scarcely remember.

When my mother left her second husband, she wrote her autobiography and presented it to him for his approval.

I reserve the right to tell shaggy dog stories or even common jokes as part of what I'm doing. I don't give a damn if half the audience walks out.

I had no idea where these kids at a small private college in the San Fernando Valley were coming from, why they were coming to hear me, or what they needed to know.

I wanted to be an inventor, whatever I thought that meant then. I guess I was thinking of Edison or maybe James Watt. Or maybe even Newton.