Death is a scandal. The machine is functioning, we are all hostages

The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.

People love as self-recognition what they hate as an accusation.

Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.

All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.

There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth.

Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?

His head is made of stars, but not yet arranged into constellations.

When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about

The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation.

Explain nothing. Put it there. Say it. Leave.

My special possessions are my sacred family.

She stole my dreams. I wanted to show her I can survive and now that won't happen

It is admirably remarked, by a most excellent writer, that zeal can no more hurry a man to act in direct opposition to itself than a rapid stream can carry a boat against its own current.

Great work comes from great joy. Leave the angst for the movies; do art - that is fun.

So the end may be a long time coming, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a way of sneaking up on you.

They're only words, unless they're true.

I never did like Cleveland. Don't know why. Didn't like the town. Now, the people are all right, but I just didn't like the town.

There are two kinds of power. One is power over, which is always destructive, and the other is power from within, which is a transcendent and creative power.

I am not very moved by historical apologies.

At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.