Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

I was an English major at the University of Minnesota, and I was very shy, which many people misinterpreted as intelligence. On the basis of that wrong impression, I became the editor of the campus literary magazine.

Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.

Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough. Thank you for the rain. And for the chance to wake up in three hours and go fishing: I thank you for that now, because I won't feel so thankful then.

The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose.

Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.