What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.

Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso; they needed models. This is especially true of writing.

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.

Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand.

Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.