All male writers, incidentally, no matter how broke or otherwise objectionable, have pretty wives. Somebody should look into this.

The biggest laughs are based on the biggest disappointments and the biggest fears.

Nowadays, of course, just about our only solvent industry is the merchandising of death, bankrolled by our grandchildren.

All these years, I've been opening the window and making love to the world.

It's a nice glass of champagne at the end of a life.

I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.

The First Amendment reads more like a dream than a law, and no other nation, so far as I know, has been crazy enough to include such a dream among its fundamental legal documents. I defend it because it has been so successful for two centuries in preserving our freedom and increasing our vitality, knowing that all arguments in support of it are certain to sound absurd.