We were not as rich as the Rockefellers or Mellons, but we were rich enough to know how rich they were.

With her high pale brow under her faded brown hair, she was like a rock washed clean by years of her husband's absences at conventions, dinners, committee meetings or simply at the office.

Perfection irritates as well as it attracts, in fiction as in life.

We were not as rich as the Rockefellers or Mellons, but we were rich enough to know how rich they were.

A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.

The crowd has a way of being right.

A man can spend his whole existence never learning the simple lesson that he has only one life and that if he fails to do what he wants with it, nobody else really cares.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

A habit is good if it helps you achieve your goal it is bad if it hinders your achievement.

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

Red carpet is a little bit scary. It's not about expression. It's about taking a pretty picture in a really weird, awkward way, with so many people watching. It's a glamorous part of the job, but it requires its own kind of courage.

The West is dead... you may lose a sweetheart but you won't forget her.

Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.

Some of my college friends used to laugh at me. But no one's laughing anymore. Now, they all try to get free underwear.

There are so many songs in me that haven't been born yet. So I can't call myself a genius, but I never turn away a compliment, and I feel like I'm on my way to that mountain.

And I began to tell little anecdotes that had happened to me, and people would laugh. And I began to like that, you know. But I knew that, 'cause I'd do that in school, but I wouldn't do it out there in front of all them people.

But there are some wounds that can never be healed.

If you don't get trained for your SATs in America today, you are at a disadvantage. Training is expensive and a lot of kids don't get trained, perhaps. So I also identify with the kid or the person who has grown up in environments like I've grown up in.

By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.

With somebody like Harrison Ford, they're so commanding and confident, and you know, he does have a certain power or charisma, and those are things that are sort of ineffable.

The worst person to be around is someone who complains about everything and appreciates nothing

I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It's a natural process.

Some people say to me, 'You don't sound very Irish.' It's because I have this tendency to iron out my accent: not because I'm ashamed of it but because it makes my life easier if I don't keep having to repeat myself.

Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.

Whatever happens, I'll just keep moving forward. Like an avalanche.

The day we dispose of the idea of disposability will be a great one for the planet.

The idea that you could make a living from writing always thrilled me.

The Bible says that Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. On the job, in the grocery store, even among unsaved friends and family members, God's people are there to bring seasoning to an unsavory situation.

Pope John Paul II was a great presence on the stage. Pope Benedict is a much more gentle and refined person, and I think he benefits greatly from the television close-ups because he wants to engage in a dialogue, in conversation. He wants to put forward his views in a measured, eloquent, rational way.

Having your adolescence at an all-male boarding school is just crap.

I love going to the G4 sci-fi-type parties.