The human relationship to combustion is as mysterious as it is fraught with madness. From the candle flame to the nuclear blast, it has lit up the human imagination with fear and fascination.

It is known that wildfires behave unpredictably - this is fundamental - but it is my experience that humans in the presence of wildfire are also likely to behave in aberrant and unpredictable ways.

Two's company and three's a crowd, but seven can be an uprising. And the seven can become 70 or 700 or 7000 very quickly if the sense of being wronged is felt broadly and truly enough.

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.

What I do as best I can is out of a deep respect for children, for how difficult their world is.

There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.

My parents were ignorant peasants from the Old World.

It's no fun being lonely.

My father belonged to a Jewish social club.

I'd like to believe an accumulation of experience has made me a sort of a grown-up person, so I can have judgment and taste and whatever.

I'm still as enamored and turned on by work as I was when I was young.

The distinctions of fine art bore me to death.

It dawned on me that art was the way I could survive.

I wanted to be acknowledged as an artist, not just some kiddie-book artist.

I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man.

A book is a book is a book.

I'm not afraid of death.

I'm not a religious person.

I was miserable as a kid.

Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences.

My being gay was something of not great interest to me.

Things come to you without you necessarily knowing what they mean.

I would infinitely prefer a daughter.

I am not a religious person, nor do I have any regrets.