I don’t know who my parents were. I know nothing about my inheritance. I could be Jewish; I could be part Negro; I could be Irish; I could be Russian. I am spiritually a mix anyway, but I did have a solid childhood fortunately, because of some wonderful women who brought me up. I never had a father or a man in the house, and that was a loss...

Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it.

It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

Never forget, son, when you represent Texas, always go first class.

In six pages, I can't even say "Hello.

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.