Being American is to eat a lot of beef steak, and boy, we've got a lot more beef steak than any other country, and that's why you ought to be glad you're an American. And people have started looking at these big hunks of bloody meat on their plates, you know, and wondering what on earth they think they're doing.

It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life. There is the implication that if you just have a little more energy, a little more fight, the problem can always be solved. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry--or laugh.

If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

It is a big temptation to me, when I create a character for a novel, to say that he is what he is because of faulty wiring, or because of microscopic amounts of chemicals which he ate or failed to eat on that particular day.

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook

What is my definition of jazz? 'Safe sex of the highest order.