No matter how close we are to another person, few human relationships are as free from strife, disagreement, and frustration as is the relationship you have with a good dog. Few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. I also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously - that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown.

Vladimir Nabokov said the two great evils of the 20th century were Marx and Freud. He was absolutely correct.

When new hopes fail, old hopes return in the endless cycle of desperation.

I love my editor, but that would be the definition of hell to me to live with someone and have them go page by page through my manuscript. That I want to avoid at all costs.

Lies hurt people; imagination makes life more fun.

Shakespeare again. Once you let him into your head, he takes up tenancy and will not leave.

There is nothing fatherly about time and what it does to us, either.