I believe you are your work. Don't trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That's a rotten bargain.

You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it.

When the corpses are cleared no new order will emerge. Power, society, relationships, will descend in all their confusion on a new generation. The old, who started this conflagration, will retreat, worn out, the survivors and the young will continue the dance.

Mother believed in enjoying herself. Aunt Mimi believed in enjoying herself, then feeling guilty about it.

sex has never been private and it never will be. We perform the act in private but we must be public about the connection. Sex is how we pass down worldly goods. It's how we create the primary unit of our society, the couple. ... This rule applies to gay people as well as straight people. ... The community absolutely must know who is straight, who is gay, who is married, and who is single. Without that information we make painful mistakes and lose time.

Novels, like human beings, usually have their beginnings in the dark.

Never let anyone or any social attitude stand in the way of your productivity.