If we can’t arrange our own happiness, it’s a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.
A healthy attitude is contagious but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.
It’s no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst.
Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
I don’t really have a system or set of principles. It’s kind of common sense mixed up with instinct.
Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child.
It is a defect of God’s humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.
Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
I smoke too much whether it’s going well or badly. After all these years, I definitely associate having a pen in my hand with having an ashtray just out of eye line.
Atheism is a crutch for those who cannot bear the reality of God.
I am not my body. My body is nothing without me.
I write fiction because it’s a way of making statements I can disown.
I don’t write at the library, because I smoke when I work or would like the possibility of a smoke. Also, I need to be at my own desk.
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.
Words are sacred. If you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little.
Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.
To be frank: the translations that often sound bad in the mouths of the actors, these have often been done by linguists.
It’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.
I write scenes – often quite long scenes – mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.
Be happy – if you’re not even happy, what’s so good about surviving?