“The first grown-up book that I read on my own was a nineteenth-century edition of ‘Tales from Livy’ that I’d found in my grandfather’s library.”

Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life, a right action is consideration for the welfare of others.

The truth about Pearl Harbour is obscured to this day. But it has been much studied.

Gossip is conversation about people.

Corporations must pay tax.

Primarily, I am a prose writer with axes to grind, and the theatre is a good place to do the grinding in. I prefer comedy to ‘serious’ drama because I believe one can get the ax sharper on the comedic stone.

Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.

Each youth betrays considerable anxiety about the wedding night ahead.

He who is last had best laugh.

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.

The theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all.

What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?

What I like least about myself is my belligerence.

I am told the Cheney-Bush team dislikes their junta being compared to the Nazis. If they ceased behaving like Nazis, no comparison would come to mind.

History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

I am only at home in the present.

Guys is supposed to be able to be original and dress like how they want to dress. The NBA can’t dress no grown man.

I’ve grown up a lot, I’m on my own, and I’ve learned some valuable life lessons.

How many thorns of human nature are bristling conceits, buds of promise grown sharp for want of congenial climate.

I’ve grown, and my passion for music has grown.

Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.

There are so many things about which some old man ought to tell one while one is little; for when one is grown one would know them as a matter of course.

When I am grown to man’s estate I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys.

I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I’m a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I’ve lived my life backwards.