I'm positive about the negative, but a little negative about the positive.
In L. A. , the only thing within walking distance is your car.
It is true that one of the first acts of tyrants is to erase history, to wipe out the recorded memory of a people. With that in mind, it's important to remember that the work that we do as writers, artists and performers will form an essential part of the collective memory that future generations will draw upon. And so we owe it to those future generations to defend that memory and be honest witnesses to our times.
It's not enough to do good. You have to be seen doing good.
I write about power, that's my real subject - how you get it, what you do with it, how you abuse it. I'm equally wary of liberals and conservatives.
Justice is a jagged road.
Bad guys do what good guys dream.
I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man.
All life worth living is difficult, nobody promised us happiness; it is not a commodity you have earned, or shall ever earn. It is a by-product of brave living, and it never comes in the form we expect, or at the season we hoped for, or as the result of our planning for it.
You didn't know whether Chuck Berry was black or white - it was not a concern.
You can truly grieve for every officer who's been lost in the line of duty in this country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach.