I have become an enthusiast for the printed word again. I have to be that, I now understand, because I want to be a character in all of my works. I can do that in print. In a movie, somehow, the author always vanishes.

The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought.

It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life.

I am of course a skeptic about the divinity of Christ and a scorner of the notion that there is a God who cares about how we are or what we do. ... Religious skeptics often become very bitter towards the end, as did Mark Twain. ... I know why I will become bitter. I will finally realize that I have had it right all along: that I will not see God, that there is no heaven or Judgement Day.

And we all vied, in saving face, to be the greatest student of human nature, the person with the quickest sense of humor.

I am an atheist (or at best a Unitarian who winds up in church quite a lot).

Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself.