The cleanest souls are the easiest to soil.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.

I got Oedipus off the incest charge--technicality, of course--he didn't know it was his mother at the time.

...being written by someone who might not quite understand the subconscious nuance of the character leaves us in varying degrees of flatness.

I wished I could share my own optimism.

Whenever I'm giving talks, I always ask people to think of the most obscure questions because I enjoy those the most. I always get the same questions: Why does Pickwick say "plock" and will there be a movie? I like the really obscure questions because there's so much in the books. There are tons and tons of references and I like when people get the little ones and ask me about them. It's good for the audience [and also] they realize there's more there.

I have a very varied taste in music. Everything from rap to classical to Latino to Rat Pack to jazz.