I don't reveal to her that I love her. I keep poker faced. She might as well be looking at a cantaloupe, there is so little information in my face, but my heart is beating.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo.

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Perhaps I am the turtle, able to live simply anywhere, even underwater for short periods, with my home on my back.

About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.

We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

«No es que yo sea bueno, es que los demás son tan malos que la comparación se revela imposible.»

–We are all dying– she told me. –Even something of the immortal will die–“What?”–Meaning–

I suppose it's knowing when you've come up with an idea that works, when you've got it right, whatever it is.

It is a good thing to be a great sinner. Or should human beings allow Christ to have died on the Cross for the sake of our petty lies and our paltry whorings

For better or worse, MTV sort of bridges the whole country together almost like the BBC does in England. It's opened up everything so wide that it's possible for everyone to have different ideas.

... the natural world is the old river that runs through everything, and I think poets will forever fish along its shores.

Develop an enthusiasm for life, create a need for more life, and you will receive more life.

Who are we but the stories we tell about ourselves, particularly if we accept them?

I was prosecutor for 18 years. I was threatened by drug dealers, murders, and organized crime. This was a walk in the park.

For the surface, I'm not interested in painterly convention. It's more interesting if it looks like it painted itself.