The other possibility was that there was no right thing to say, that the choice wasn't between right and wrong but between wrong, more wrong, and as wrong as you can get.

If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.

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

Whatever you're working on, take small bites. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.

I'm delighted by how Nobody's Fool turned out. It was a rare movie.

By ignoring a lot of American culture you can write more interesting stories. Unfortunately, if you were writing about America as it is, you'd be writing about a lot of people sitting in front of television sets.

I don't think America has ever had a center the way London is the center of England or Dublin is the center of Ireland.