I appreciate my my sleep In sleep my conversation is witty My home is dusted My office work is up to date The dog is even well behaved And food is on the table on time But then when I'm asleep I don't have you to clutter and confuse My hungry heart

I used to go up to her house. She lived upstate [in New York] and I lived in Manhattan; you're living in a lot of noise and my career was being built. For me to spend time with Nina [Simone] is to spend a lot of quiet time.

I'm an old storyteller. I tell the story. It's about the story.

The nature of tragedy and accident is that we cannot predict.

My main strength as a young writer was that I had no fear of making mistakes. I knew I would and I knew I could and would learn from them.

There are some things we do simply because the doing is a success.

If I can't do what I want to do, then my job is to not do what I want to do. It's not the same thing, but it's the best thing I can do.