Youth is the only sexy tragedy. It's James Dean jumping into his Porsche Spyder, it's Marilyn heading off to bed.

Virginia Woolf came along in the early part of the century and essentially said through her writing, yes, big books can be written about the traditional big subjects. There is war. There is the search for God. These are all very important things.

She is not a writer at all, really; she is merely a gifted eccentric.

Please, God, send me something to adore.

People are more than you think they are. And they're less, as well. The trick lies in negotiating your way between the two.

If you've really loved a book, or a movie for that matter, really loved it, what you want is that same book again, but as if you've never read it. And when you get something unfamiliar, you feel betrayed.

That is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other.