I don't associate work with feelings of satisfaction. Rather, guilt, frustration, and resentment of people who write better than I do.

Children can find other children to be pals. Children need fathers to be fathers.

I am a cheerful man, even in the dark, and it's all thanks to a good Lutheran mother. . . . Mother was well composed, a true Lutheran, and taught me to Cheer up, Make yourself useful, Mind your manners, and above all, Don't feel sorry for yourself.

Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that.

Sport is a seductive metaphor (life as a game in which we gain victory through hard work, discipline, and visualizing success). but the older metaphor of farming (life as hard labor that is subject to weather and quirks of blind fate and may return no reward whatsoever and don't be surprised) is still in our blood.

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

In California virtually everyone has had their teeth whitened. If they all smiled at once, they would give us a headache.