Hollywood screenwriters tend to have the longevity of NFL running backs. So the truth is no one can put more pressure on us than we put on ourselves.

Perhaps a hero is someone who doesn’t register his own vulnerability. Is it courage, then, if you’re too daft to know you’re mortal?

I was like a well trained pianist who knows which note to hit, but can't make the music his own.

A certain luxury when you get to writing a novel is to have the space to have your characters just banter.

‎I was cursed with the pessimism of both the Russians and the Jews two of the gloomiest tribes in the world. Still if there wasn't greatness in me maybe I had the talent to recognize it in others even in the most irritating others.

You don't like the girl. You don't know what color eyes she has, you don't like her.

With the movies, people are not going to wait around. The deadline is a deadline. In publishing it's more a polite suggestion.