Can't a rapper insist, like other artists, on a fictional reality, in which he is somehow still on the corner, despite occupying the penthouse suite?

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

Why does anybody do anything?" Mimi asked impatiently. "Most of the time we don't know--any of us.

Be yourself and think for yourself and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the conclusions forced upon you.

The last kiss is given to the void.

Everybody's looking for a good time. Don't you know a good time doesn't hurt?

It is a virtue and a prize to listen patiently to and put up with insults for the sake of God

It's just hard to meet new people, in my position.

I used to like fishing because I thought it had some larger significance. Now I like fishing because it's the one thing I can think of that probably doesn't.

We never consider that the things dogs know about us are things of which we have not the faintest notion.

Nothing is lasting but change; nothing perpetual but death.

We have nowhere else to go... this is all we have.