The things other people have put into my head, at any rate, do not fit together nicely, are often useless and ugly, are out of proportion with one another, are out of proportion with life as it really is outside my head.

I had taught myself that a human being might as well look for diamond tiaras in the gutter as for rewards and punishments that were fair.

And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

Harry closed his eyes. He never wanted to open them again. His heart sent this message to his molecules: "For reasons obvious to all of us, this galaxy is dissolved!

I think jokes are a perfectly viable form of literature. Some critics take issue with me because I make my points and discuss my ideas with jokes, rather than with oceanic tragedy.

Teaching, may I say, is the noblest profession of all in a democracy.

Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.