Talent is the gift plus the passion - a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it.

Writers feel like a middleman, standing with pen in hand over the page. A force greater than me stands above telling me what to write. That may sound romantic, but that's how it feels.

I feel like writing about a time when I was probably, and think all of us are, the happiest before the obligations start in.

I got brown sandwiches and green sandwiches. Its either very new cheese or very old meat. - Oscar Madison, from The Odd Couple

He's too nervous to kill himself. He wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie.

New York is not Mecca. It just smells like it.

Evan Handler's new book is simply wonderful. He pulls you inside his life, and you come out his very close friend.