Some of the attitudes of Barney are certainly attitudes I share, but not all.

Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.

Some of the attitudes of Barney are certainly attitudes I share, but not all.

Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials.

I'm criticized by the feminists, by the Jewish establishment, by Canadian nationalists. And why not? I've had my pot shots at them. I'm fair game.

In Canada, nobody is ever overthrown because nobody gives a damn.

Everybody writes a book too many.

I obviously prefer writing novels but I take my journalism very seriously, and I enjoy doing it between novels. It gives me an opportunity to move in the outside world.

If you're writing a novel, you're in a room for three or four years. There's not much coming in from the outside.

We live in the country, and I have a huge library there. When we go to London for the winter I never know which books to take. I never know what I am going to need. That's the only disadvantage.

The process hasn't changed, but the writer has developed. I still get up every morning and go to work.

I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night.

America's history is exemplified in the efforts of the men and women who died for our country. The one thing that they all have in common is their selfless love for our nation and their courage to stand up to protect and defend it. They raised their gaze in the face of conflict, believed in what America could be, and pushed forward.

Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.

I feel like there is always a rumor that I'm dating someone that I never met before. People have their judgments and ideas of who I am, and they know nothing.

Books were in my family - books were my family.

If I took over the 'Glamour' offices for a day, I would put Joe Pesci on the cover. I would say 'We've got to change all these magazines a little bit. We have to bring out a different version of what is, like, cool. You know, what's winning. Joe Pesci, Burt Reynolds.'

Employees who dont feel significant rarely make significant contributions.

I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even to the deeply religious - that religious fanaticism is an extremely dangerous deranger of otherwise sane and goodhearted people.

Other times you can get showy for three minutes, and that's OK with certain films. But that isn't right with an Ang Lee movie, you have to fit right in. You have to understand Ang, respect him and be part of the team and not be in charge of it - he is in charge of it.

The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?

I felt I had to share Idaho with my friend from New York because he'd shared New York with me, so I was going to share the beauty of nature with a man who went to museums and clubs late at night. But there was nothing to do where I lived at night.

Remember when Jay-Z wore a Che Guevara T-shirt? Nobody knew who Che was. Then Jay-Z wears it, and it's everywhere.

All my interesting stories are from before I was on television. Nothing interesting has happened to me since then. Maybe it's because the most interesting thing in my life is the show and that's on telly.

I ran for the Senate six times. And one of the things I know about Senate races off years and on races, and on years, the same as governor's races, is it's all local. It all gets down to what the specific issues in that - in that district or that state is.

I love music. I think it's a higher art form, in a way, than movies. You know, a film you see once, maybe twice. A song will follow you forever. It's a magical thing.

We have a legal and moral obligation to rid our world of nuclear tests and nuclear weapons.

If you really believe in yourself, you cannot listen to other people.

What I can't tell with a photo I will tell with a painting, and what I can't tell with a painting I will tell with a video or text sometimes, et cetera.

Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration.

No one cares about anything until it’s something that goes viral. It’s most certainly frustrating.

I'm beginning to think that you should only be allowed to serve two terms, before madness sets in.

I listen to music two ways: As a person, you have an instinctive, personal, emotional response. But as a music supervisor, you have a secondary response, which is, 'Will this sit well under dialogue?' 'Can people die to this?' 'Can people kiss to this?'

As for suspense, I like to write books that draw you into the hero's plight from the opening pages, where people put their lives on the line for something - a belief, a family member, the truth.

When I got my first email from a record label, I decided I didn't want to go in with just one song, so I sat down and kept on writing.