I have thought about the nature of this creative process and have reached a somewhat aberrant conclusion. I don't understand it and I don't think anyone else does either.

I thought about him everyday until then. I started having these conversations with him in my head that you have when you meet someone you sense is going to be important in your life.

Ultimately life is disease, death and oblivion. It's still better than high school.

I'll never be a minimalist. The fact that the prose is more tightly controlled doesn't for a minute mean that it's minimalist. I very much like arcane words and baroque sentence structure.

I worry that even well-intentioned attempts to "improve nature" (say by reducing suffering) will make things worse even in their own terms.

I do not know what 'moss' stands for in the proverb , but if it stood for useful knowledge... I gathered more moss by rolling than I ever did at school.

You couldnt get a job playing in a club unless you played so much Top 40 and so many Beatles songs. I just went into a sort of revolt.

Generous gestures yield the most when that isn't their purpose.

There is a tyrannical element in all fanaticism, an element which makes opposition a torment.

If I had parallel lives to pursue, I would also want one as a painter.

Zee said, grumpily, “Liebling, this is not a good idea.” “Zee,” I told him, “I am completely out of good ideas and am doing my best with the bad ones I have left.