The stories we hear in our childhood are the ones we remember all our lives.

I believe the first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months…Any longer and — for me, at least — the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave duiring a period of severe sunspot activity.

Good books are for consideration after, too.

Why does everyone think that I am a cruel and insensitive man? I mean, come on, I have kids... on my desk in little jars!

Tracking account planning is rather like counting a mixed batch of tropical fish. You think you see patterns, but they've all changed by the time you've finished counting.

I'm a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami.

Writing's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.