“If you've a story, make sure it's a whole one, with details close to hand. It's the difference between a good lie and getting caught.”

“Inspirations come differently, sometimes you are just sleeping and get a bad dream, others are stories in papers. So people have different stories, it’s about art. I make sure I keep my brains awake.”

“He was caught up in a lie he half-believed,
Found her hiding high in the family tree.
Washed his hands, and put her 'cross his knee.
She said "daddy, you've been a mother to me."”

“Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in.”

“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”

“I guess that's the story of life: what you most fear never happens, but what you most yearn for never happens either. This is the difference between life and fiction. I suppose it's a good trade-off. But I'm not sure.”

“During the feminist seventies men were caught between a rock and a hard-on; in the fathering eighties they are caught between good hugs and bad hugs.”

“What difference does it make if the Gospel is mostly a lie? It's an engrossing story and the words of its hero are excellent words to live by, even today.”

“So this is the difference between telling a story and being in one, he thought numbly, the fear.”

“Are the details of our lives who we are, or is it owning those details that makes the difference?”