To Norwegians, the polka is a form of martial art.

Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement, and now it is a problem to be overcome.

Roy Blount's stuff makes me laugh so hard, sometimes I have to go sit in a room and shut the door

Have interesting failures.... If you need to have a personal crisis have it now. Don't wait until midlife, when it will take longer to resolve.... Don't pity yourselves. Lighten up. Seek people with a sense of humor. Avoid humorless people-and do not marry one, for God's sake.

No matter what time of year I come here, people always say the same thing: Its not usually like this.

We writers don't really think about whether what we write is good or not. It's too much to worry about. We just put the words down, trying to get them right, operating by some inner sense of pitch and proportion, and from time to time, we stick the stuff in an envelope and ship it to an editor.

No innocent man buys a gun, and no happy man writes his memoirs.