McSweeney's as a publishing company is built on a business model that only works when we sell physical books. So we try to put a lot of effort into the design and production of the book-as-object.

I've drunk Amazon's free Diet Coke. Nothing makes more sense to me than a company trying to make bookselling into a profitable business. I'm not anti-Amazon and I'm not pro-publishers either. I'm pro-books.

We didn't have a whole lot of money when I was growing up either. I would always ask for magic books or magic tricks for my birthday or for Christmas and the rest of the year I either had to mow lawns or find part time jobs to help supplement the cost of doing magic.

I have had fans make me the big picture collages of the photo books I have had fans send me birthday cakes... sing to me on my voicemail. I have had fans flash me. I have had older fans give me their bras and underwear onstage.

The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend but often those which meet the peculiar wants the natural thirst of his mind and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought.

The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.

Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?

Next to acquiring good friends the best acquisition is that of good books.

There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.

If anything I try to write something that would be more difficult to film. I tend to see film as competition and would like instead to do what books do best.