Never sweep. After four years the dirt gets no worse.

Believe in fate, but lean forward where fate can see you.

There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings.

As a test of the closeness of your relationship with the world, sex could never be a patch on being murdered. (That's when someone really does risk his life for you.)

I would never go to a place and live there because the weather was good or the scenery was beautiful or the architecture was wonderful. I would only go because the people are kind, and in America, everybody's your friend and happiness rains down from the sky.

You can't be a person and a lady. If you're a person, you can open the damned door yourself.

For flavor, instant sex will never supersede the stuff you have to peel and cook.