When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on...

People are animals, man.

When someone else is getting punished you show up, you eat some lunch, you sit back because you're not going to do anything. But when you're the one that has to go, that whole day is a very miserable...

The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.

The more I see of men the more I like dogs.

Why do we write novels or make television about real things? It's the human condition and human suffering.

Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's...

I've never turned over a fig leaf yet that didn't have a price tag on the other side.

The great problem of humanity is life and death. Every person dreams of becoming invisible one day.

Why should the eyes be denied what delights them most?

There has always been something about the biggest, the wealthiest, the best-known, the most prestigious that has appealed to me. It's always seemed to me that that is what people want to know about.

Friends earn the title on the flimsiest of premises: because they are in our class at school, or we share an office, or our children like each other.

We're all human beings, but some of us are more sophisticated at covering our flaws. We're just smart enough to lie to ourselves that everything is OK.

I guess you can get politicians out of politics, but you can't get politics out of them.

Self-righteous people can talk themselves into forgetting they are part of a civilization. They can then feed on that culture, bringing it down. It's happened many times in the past. It could happen...

Perhaps misguided moral passion is better than confused indifference.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

It is easy to make people cry. Everyone has pain in their lives and we all strive hard to keep that smile on our face.

Science fiction writers have usually been very poor prognosticators of the future, either in literary or technological terms, and that's because we're all too human and, I think, have the tendency to...

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human...

I'm crazy, but I'm serious. I'm sentimental, but I'm, like, really hard, too. I just want people to understand that I have all these sides inside me.

When all else fails there's always delusion.

I do believe that there are monsters out there - and that they are monsters.

I'm an emotional fighter; that's no secret. But it can be detrimental.

I try to be a nice person, but it's difficult sometimes.

I don't think people change; electronics change, the things we have change, but the way we live doesn't change.

Man is not born to atheism. He is born to believe.

People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it.

I'm really into the idea of telling stories. Everyone needs stories. Everyone needs to escape every once in a while.

As we wrestle with questions of identity, we imitate those actions we think best fill an ambiguity we have within ourselves. And that goes for everyone; no one is free from this condition.