I think it would be harder for me not to write comedy because the comic view of things is the one that comes most naturally to me.

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

That afternoon I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most disturbing personal truths and gnawing fears.

He looks like he could be taken in a fight. Not by me, but by somebody. Not anyone in Humanities, probably.

Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it.

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

To weigh and evaluate a vast grid of information, much of it meaningless, and to arrive at sensible, if erroneous, conclusions, is a skill not to be sneezed at.