Edgar Allen Poe really started me when I was 8. I fell in love with everything of his.

When you go home tonight, make a list of the people who are impediments, who don't believe in you, and call them up and tell them, 'Get the hell out of my life.' You don't need them. Writing is tough enough without having people around you who contribute to a writer's insecurity.

The first thing you learn in life is you're a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you're the same fool.

My tunes and numbers are here. They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die. And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00 A.M. So as not to be dead.

Action is hope. There is no hope without action.

There was her face, like a summer peach, beautiful and warm, and the light of the candles reflected in her dark eyes. [He] held his breath. The entire world waited and held its breath.

Ours is a culture and a time immensely rich in trash as it is in treasures.