So influenced by these advisors and this hope I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work as they had long besought me to do.

When you put something out there into the world there's all these words you don't want to hear that you hope people don't say. I don't like anything that starts with 're' - like retro reinvent recreate - I hate that. It's always like living in the past - copying emulating.

The climate the economic situation rising birth rates none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic.

I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost.

It's possible that I've matured as a writer and I hope I've matured emotionally but I always find myself revisiting these adolescent scenes.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots the other wings.

Hope founded upon a human being a man-made philosophy or any institution is always misplaced... because these things are unreliable and fleeting.

I don't feel a lack of hope. It's just disappointment that after all these years we're still fighting meaningless wars for a handful of people.

The happy Union of these States is a wonder their Constitution a miracle their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

If you start in the pit of despair with these profane awful things even a glimmer of hope or awareness is going to occur that's much brighter coming from this dark awful beginning.

After spending time with the rescued turkeys at Farm Sanctuary's shelter and seeing how similar they are to my furry companion animals at home I knew I needed to do everything in my power to protect these friendly and curious birds from the daily pain and suffering they endure on factory farms.

I live in literally the same home when I was swiping my first bank card and wondering if I'd have to put back the Charmin. We still don't have a dishwasher. My mom has done all these gardens so now my house looks like the garden shack in the middle of Versailles.

About 15 years ago I went though a period of a year or so when I just couldn't find anything good. My wife noticed I was having trouble reading menus. I bought some cheap reading glasses in a drug store. I got home and suddenly all these books that weren't good were good.

I'm just like so many women - I was frustrated I had these white pants that I had spent a lot of money on and you get home and you think 'What am I really supposed to wear under this?' So it was a frustrated consumer moment.

And I came back and it was great 'cuz George had set up all these flowers all over the studio saying welcome home. So then we got it together again. I always felt it was better on the White one for me. We were more like a band you know.

Events at home at work in the street - these are the bases for a story.

A fan sent me a letter and a $10 bill. It's a short letter - all she said was 'Hey since it's harder for you to go out these days without getting photographed here $10 for a pizza.' I was like 'Aww she sent me money for a pizza so I could eat at home!'

These days you have the option of staying home blogging in your underwear and not having your words mangled. I think I like the direction things are headed.

Snowboarding's tough because you've got to go to the mountains. For me I love the skateboard season because I get to hangout at home and still be skating. I don't have to travel to Norway or Japan or these crazy places to be snowboarding.

The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home and these are ignorance superstition and incompetence.

Great men are usually the products of their times and one of the men developed by these times takes rank with the greatest railroad leaders in history.

Just touching that old tree was truly moving to me because when you touch these trees you have such a sense of the passage of time of history. It's like you're touching the essence the very substance of life.

Our history is that we can very aggressively if necessary and openly and democratically discuss our differences. We have a democratic history in which we come together and vote on these things.

Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of past dinosaurs. For that reason I'm optimistic that we can eventually arrive at convincing explanations for these broadest patterns of human history.