Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.

Literature boils with the madcap careers of writers brought to the edge by the demands of living on their nerves, wringing out their memories and their nightmares to extract meaning, truth, beauty.

The steady pressure to consume, absorb, participate, receive, by eye, ear, mouth, and mail involves a cruelty to intestines, blood pressure, and psyche unparalleled in history.

Conformity is inevitable when folks huddle together in rebellion.

Being a writer is a rather hazardous occupation and there is a horribly high rate of writers who barely have the money for the paper and pen they use for their craft.

The would-bees take their honey from the flowers of creation.

The fact that all of us die anyway (the rumor turns out to be true) is a mere detail in the celestial glow of imagination. The artist's eyes destroy death.

Isolation from power makes men look for a mob in which they can be strong.

The magic will which makes us see the other side of our natures-dream and disaster, catastrophe and fulfillment-is the great permanent challenge of humanity.

If mankind is naturally good, he is sure going against his nature more and more of the time. It sounds like a bad joke: the paranoids are after us.

With short stories, the story-teller must have a story to tell, not merely some sweet prose to take out for a walk

While police officers who blatantly shaft the common people believe that they are God, they are the Devil to those that they wrong.

If you want to get more, appreciate and express heartfelt gratitude for what you have.

Your ability is your power. Others’ opinions can make it sour.

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.

In ways I don't entirely have the words for an experience, thought or a lesson isn't real for me until I've written down.

Only towards the end of this process are any of the chapters in fully readable condition, a state of affairs that used to alarm my wife. But Joan's got used to it.

Knowing "why" (an idea) is more important than learning "what" (the fact).

The materials for poetry are all about you in profusion.

To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.

You cannot commit an act of violence against a non-sentient object, only against a living thing.