Television turned out to be exactly as bad as the most irritating and pedantic intellectuals of the '50s said it was going to be.

When I was a kid, the people of my generation didn't want to be writers, they wanted to be rock stars. Rock and roll was not just entertainment, it was the center of people's lives. When I was young, it was exciting and interesting.

If there had been a job of being a reader, I would have taken that, because I love to read and I don't love to write. That would be blissful.

I always make a big effort to make a distinction between what is actually worse or what is just worse about not being 21. Of course, it's much worse not to be 21. This is a given. But there are things that are worse.

When Toni Morrison said 'write the book you want to read,' she didn't mean everybody.

Children ask better questions than adults. "May I have a cookie?" "Why is the sky blue?" and "What does a cow say?" are far more likely to elicit a cheerful response than "Where's your manuscript?" "Why haven't you called?" and "Who's your lawyer?"

Cheese that is required by law to append the word food to its title does not go well with red wine or fruit.