It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

I hid my deepest feelings so well I forgot where I placed them.

My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day.

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

So sad! This is the saddest part when you lose someone you love- that person keeps changing. And later you wonder, Is this the same person I lost?

I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.

Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.

I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength..."strongest wind cannot be seen."

How can you blame a person for his fears and weaknesses unless you have felt the same and done differently?

Libraries are the pride of the city.

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

The dead neither see nor ear.

In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.

Just expressing contempt for your leaders doesn't really accomplish anything.

One more stage, one more limo, one more run for your life.

Innovation is new stuff that is made useful.

Not everything is immediately good to those who seek God; but everything is capable of becoming good.

What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?

Alan Ginsberg was fabulous. The man is so filled with energy. He's 65 years old and he's just loaded with energy and charm and wit and his mind is constantly racing.

I'm always trying to get those interviews that are impossible to get, because they are the ones that are most interesting to the audience.

I feel that I am a scholar who only with the left hand writes novels.