How complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the Universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand.

I can think of no more stirring symbol of man's humanity to man than a fire engine.

I paraphrase Aristotle: If you want to be comical, write about people to whom the audience can feel superior; if you want to be tragical, write about at least one person to whom the audience is bound to feel inferior, and no fair having human problems solved by dumb luck or heavenly intervention.

[I write] intuitively, reflexively, as if skiing down a steep mountain slope with no time to think.

What's going to happen is, very soon, we're going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The food trucks will come to a halt. This is the end of the world.

Traveling is like dancing lessons from God.