Ambition is a Dead Sea fruit, and the greatest peril to the soul is that one is likely to get precisely what he is seeking.

Herman Melville was as separated from a civilized literature as the lost Atlantis was said to have been from the great peoples of the earth.

We cannot live, suffer or die for somebody else, for suffering is too precious to be shared.

When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

Recognize the cunning man not by the corpses he pays homage to but by the living writers he conspires against with the most shameful weapon, Silence, or the briefest review.

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

A strong foe is better than a weak friend.

Narcissus never wrote well nor was a friend.

Love comes with a knife, not some shy question, and not with fears for its reputation!

That's the worst of growing up, and I'm beginning to realize it. The things you wanted so much when you were a child don't seem half so wonderful to you when you get them

We like the idea of being a little divisive without making it into some kind of philosophical musical approach, and maybe we can convert some people to our view of the world.

Psychiatry is a dirty mirror.

Python is executable pseudocode. Perl is executable line noise.

It is always dishonest for a reviewer to review the author instead of the author's book.

It's like never hearing a Joy Division album or something. I'm finally watching Twin Peaks, and I'm so into it.

Don't be afraid to write crap - it makes the best fertilizer. The more you write the better your chances of growing something wonderful.

God grants an easy death only to the just.

Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres.