“There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.”

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality — the story of an escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times — how to escape.”

“And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many examples and modes of this … Fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies. The Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness.”

“When I date someone, I think long term. What's the point of dating someone if you only want them temporarily?”

“A book is a story for the mind. A song is a story for the soul. ”

“The work of television is to establish false contexts and to chronicle the unraveling of existing contexts; finally, to establish the context of no-context and to chronicle it.”

“A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.”

“Surrender is surrender to this moment, not to a story through which you interpret this moment and then try to resign yourself to it. … Can you accept the isness of this moment and not confuse it with a story the mind has created around it?”

“It should not be denied… that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom, and the road has always led West.”

“The second person to write a story about a young boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi wasn't a novelist, he was a typist.”