With short stories, the story-teller must have a story to tell, not merely some sweet prose to take out for a walk

Literature boils with the madcap careers of writers brought to the edge by the demands of living on their nerves, wringing out their memories and their nightmares to extract meaning, truth, beauty.

The steady pressure to consume, absorb, participate, receive, by eye, ear, mouth, and mail involves a cruelty to intestines, blood pressure, and psyche unparalleled in history.

Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.

Conformity is inevitable when folks huddle together in rebellion.

Being a writer is a rather hazardous occupation and there is a horribly high rate of writers who barely have the money for the paper and pen they use for their craft.

The would-bees take their honey from the flowers of creation.

The fact that all of us die anyway (the rumor turns out to be true) is a mere detail in the celestial glow of imagination. The artist's eyes destroy death.

Isolation from power makes men look for a mob in which they can be strong.

The magic will which makes us see the other side of our natures-dream and disaster, catastrophe and fulfillment-is the great permanent challenge of humanity.

If mankind is naturally good, he is sure going against his nature more and more of the time. It sounds like a bad joke: the paranoids are after us.

[W]e need to think twice about raining down vengeance and anger as our default position.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

But find something that you absolutely love doing. And then get to love the way you do it. That's the uniqueness of all of us. That's it.

Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off.

And what if I don't want forgiveness?

A husband should not insult his wife publicly, at parties. He should insult her in the privacy of the home.

Self-portraits have been done in painting, but never in music or literature. It has no meaning, it makes no sense. And in movies I was wondering if it could. And how.

Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says.

Sometimes you are lifted up to the mountaintop as a gift from the universe, so you can see what is possible. Then you are put down back at the bottom: Now you have to earn it for yourself.

The Spaniards have been reduced to aiming aimless balls into the box.