Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist, you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it.

No one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.

Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.

I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.

I think I'm going to have to get a flying license very soon, and maybe one of those Lear jets. It beats motorcycles all to hell.

The first impression is always the right one. I rarely change my mind upward about people.