Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word WRITER on it before you can believe you are one? God I hope not.

I don't want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share.

and so will the world end, I think, a victim of love rather than hate. For love's ever been the more destructive weapon, sure.

Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward life with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand.

It's not the pain I'm afraid of; I know about the pain. What I'm afraid of is the end of this small, sweet dream.

But I think there are a set of experiences that turn a potential writer into a working writer, and then there are places in your life were you start to recognize what you want to do.

It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.