We're all of us dying . . . from the moment we're born

What do we think of sex on television? Frankly, I think it's a pain. For one thing, the cable box gets wedged into your back and gets real uncomfortable.

There are no such things as happy endings. Never. They're totally manufactured by fiction writers who choose to end the story on a high point.

At conventions, one of the standard questions I get is, 'Are you writing any new novels?' To which I used to respond, in my smart-[alec] fashion, 'No, I've decided to write only old novels.'

If we can't alter the tide of events, at least we can be nearby with towels to mop up.

Maybe science is just magic with delusions of lack of grandeur.

Why (he wondered rhetorically) do people who have a position that's being attacked constantly state that they have a right to say it, as if the right itself-rather than the statement-has been challenged?