We can no longer take our own way of life for granted - we know that it may be challenged. And we know this, too - and know it ever more deeply - we know that freedom and democracy are not just big words mouthed by orators but the rain and the wind and the sun, the air and the light by which we breathe and live.

We cannot afford the creeping paralysis that destroys the effective will of democracy - the paralysis carried by hate and rancor, between class and class, person and person, party and party, as plague is carried through the streets of a town.

A man with a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain, and eyes like burning antracite - that was Dan'l Webster in his prime.

Trouble with women. Can't do any art and be married if you're in love with your wife.

I know people who have gone into career death spins, and that's something you're always aware of as a writer.

I learned through his death that, hey, life is short. You think you're going to live to be 75 years of age, and Brian proved that you're not going to live that long.

When someone is dying, there is nothing you really can do, it's a horrible situation, and... you just have to get through it.

At the time when I was in college, Oscar Grant had just lost his life in Oakland, Calif. He was an unarmed young black male who had a record. And at the time when his death was making headlines, more people were talking about what he had done in his past than the fact that he unjustly lost his life.