Envy never comes to the ball dressed as envy; it comes dressed as high moral standards or distaste for materialism.

It's an ancient idea that the leader of a democracy should not be the cleverest but the most average. That's an arguable point, but the world has decided otherwise - except in America, where it still divides the country right down the middle.

I don't think I'd like Manhattan anymore. My mother-in-law lives there, and you go there. But I like looking at it from a distance. It's a fantastic sight - every time, it awes me.

You cannot combine being a movie star with not being a movie star.

Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.

I'm afraid the negative things are always the great subjects. Failure is much more interesting than success.

I always do my draft in long hand because even the ink is part of the flow.