I've always considered myself a writer.

I've lost many, many friends through natural causes, through alcohol, through drugs, through AIDS. And every time I lose a friend or a loved one, it reminds me how great life is.

I didn't waste my time on things I didn't love.

I was a lower middle-class kid. My family had no money. There was no room in our small house where there were already four kids, including myself, living.

You can't make a mistake when you improvise.

The two things that constantly inspired me were books and travel.

Patti, did art get us?' I looked away, not really wanting to think about it. 'I don't know, Robert. I don't know.' Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that. Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.