Is T.S. Eliot the only poet one can think of who could have spent a year on his own in Paris at twenty-three—and managed to have no sexual encounter whatsoever?

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

Doubtless these are inconsequential perplexities. Still, inconsequential perplexities have now and again been known to become the fundamental mood of existence, one suspects.

In fact one frequently seemed to gather all sorts of similar information about subjects one had less than profound interest in.

Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover...or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?

Once, I had a dream of fame. Generally, even then, I was lonely.

What do any of us ever truly know?

The morning’s recollection of the emptiness of the day before. Its anticipation of the emptiness of the day to come.

Can Protagonist think of a single film that interests him as much as the three-hundredth best book he ever read?

I also believe I met William Gaddis once. He did not look Italian.

You will say that I am old and mad, was what Michaelangelo wrote, but I answer that there is no better way of being sane and free from anxiety than by being mad.

You don't ever want to go out there and not be the best. You want to be the best cop that you can. Be the best writer you can be. Everybody has their goals. Everybody has their dreams.

Delete the negative accentuate the positive!

I began quite early in life to sense the thrill a girl attains in supplying money to a man.

Though I have seen a great deal of the sights, traveled a number of the available paths, there are always corners that remain unexplored, doors that remain unopened.

Hopefully, we can build bridges, but we also have to draw lines.

Hope sings when all melodies are gone.

The purpose of labor is to learn; when you know it, the labor is over.

And alone and without his nest shall the Eagle fly across the sun.

The civilization of cities is breeding a new race of monks who have none of the original religious drive towards chastity, but are just incapable of facing the responsibilities of marriage.

There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.