Quote

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

If you're not careful, you can fall into a destructive cycle of self-pity.

The thing is, you don't want to overact or be full of yourself.

Sometimes I can be tactful and sometimes not. It all depends on the mood I'm in.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.

I really try to put myself in uncomfortable situations. Complacency is my enemy.

The tantalizing discomfort of perplexity is what inspires otherwise ordinary men and women to extraordinary feats of ingenuity and creativity; nothing quite focuses the mind like dissonant details awaiting harmonious resolution.