There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean - hell, I know that.

Kids know they can't make it alone, yet at the same time, built into each one of us, is a survival ethic. It says, "Nobody cares and you have to look out for yourself and if you don't, you'll die." These two things work against each other. I think most kids are very frightened of their parents, and that's what all fairy tales reflect: Parents will fail you and you'll be left on your own. But, of course, everything comes out right in the end and the parents take you back.

...maybe the world needs a cadre of smartasses to liven things up, who knows?

I have the world's best job. I get paid to hang out in my imagination all day.

I believe that the combination of pencil and memory creates a kind of practical magic, and magic is dangerous.

If it's ka it'll come like a wind, and your plans will stand before it no more than a barn before a cyclone

He had never been a social man. He had shunned causes with contempt and disgust. They were for pig-simple suckers and people with too much time and money on their hands.