He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

I'd like to have the kind of house someday where a carousel horse wouldn't be out of place in the living room.

My former wife is a very eccentric woman, which is why I still love her.

Great minds sink alike, right?

The only thing worse for smoking than drinking is quitting drinking. Because then it's the only thing you can do.

I think it's dangerous to think you know what you're writing. I usually don't know, and usually I just discover it in the course of writing. I envy those writers who can outline a beginning, a middle, and end. Fitzgerald supposedly did it. John Irving does. Bret Easton Ellis does. But for me, the writing itself is the process of discovery. I can't see all that far ahead.

You have friends who actually care about you and speak the language of the inner self. You have avoided them of late. Your soul is as disheveled as your apartment, and until you can clean it up a little you don't want to invite anyone inside.