[on Hollywood interest in his book, "Bright Lights, Big City") A month before the book came out, I was working in a liquor store to make ends meet when I got a call from Paramount: Could I fly to Hollywood? I thought it was hilarious. But when I was out there, there was a great explosion at Paramount, and everybody suddenly left the next week, so I never heard from them again. Then Jerry Weintraub bought the picture through Columbia. But after I submitted my third draft of the screenplay, I never heard from him again either - and then, almost three years later, I heard from Jim (James Bridges).

[on director James Bridges] I think we're probably lucky that [Jim] was not a thirty-two year old director... I often feared that someone was going to try to make a music video out of my book.