When it comes to flying, I am a nervous passenger but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

I'm just not having a very good time and I don't have any reason to think it'll get anything but worse. I'm tired. I'm hurt. I'm sad. I feel used.

The damn vermin are so numerous that I am afraid to sneeze, for fear the damned lice would regard it as gong for dinner, and eat me up - Robert Cobb Kennedy

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer.

I'm just another player that comes in and comes out. Everybody's time is up at some point, I don't think that's my problem. I'm just going to keep on trying like I normally do.

The Republicans are looking after the financial interests of the wealthiest individuals in this country.

From first to last the civilization of America has been bound up with its physical environment.

All Plutophiles are based in America. If you go to other countries, they have much less of an attachment to either the existence or preservation of Pluto as a planet.

Self-study, in a sense of learning by yourself without anybody teaching you anything, has an enormous value.

I am still comfortable with my body, because I'm like, What's not to be comfortable with? I mean, it's just my nature.

I am actually a terrible coward. Fear is a constant fact of my life.