And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.

You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel.

I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.

It's no secret that in my books I'm trying to make the comic and the serious rub up against each other just as closely and uncomfortably as I can.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Where was the middle ground between a sense of adventure and just plain sense?

America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.