Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Like the crowd greeting the gladiator. Don't stop to think, don't interrupt the scream, exhale, release life's rapture.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

I carry too much of the week into the Sabbath, and too little of the Sabbath into the week. John Quincy Adams

What you didn't tell someone was just as debilitating as what you did.

In an easy cause any man may be eloquent.

I love making records; I love making music; I love writing songs.

I need to develop some patience - immediately.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

When I was 17 years old, I was in the music business.

At some point, you realize that people might be laughing at your jokes because they're afraid not to laugh.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

There are moments when the heart is generous, and then it knows that for better or worse our lives are woven together here, one with one another and with the place and all the living things.