In the middle of Siberia I guess there's a lake that big [ like the Great Lakes], but there are practically no other lakes that big with fresh water.

So let's give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That'll teach bin Laden a lesson he won't soon forget.

love is a hawk with velvet claws love is a rock with heart and veins love is a lion with satin jaws love is a storm with silken reins

Mark Twain was so good with crowds that he became, in competition with singers and dancers and actors and acrobats, one of the most popular performers of his time. It is so unusual, and so psychologically unlikely, too, for a great writer to be a great performer, too.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.

That is the first thing I know for sure: (1.) If the questions don't make sense, neither will the answers.

There is no shortage of wonderful writers. What we lack is a dependable mass of readers.