Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. ... I have 10 or so, and thats a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.

Americans worship the Constitution but do not observe it.

The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no.'

Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.

Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects.

There are two things you never turn down: sex and appearing on television.

Love, like a sense of humor, is now claimed by everyone even though Love, like a sense of humor, is rather more rare than not, and to most of us poor muddlers unbearable at full strength.