The incessant perpetuation of collective fantasies makes people crave the truth and nothing but the truth - reality is the fastest American commodity.

It's so internalized, the way your mind works in relation to anything - it's a process, but then it isn't. It's working all the time.

Rilke said that art can come only out of inner necessity. I write because I must. Or because I cannot not write.

Politics imagined as direct agency, whether by voting or by participating in politics, you can think you're not political because you don't do anything between elections.

We hated pretentiousness; it was a form of self-hatred.

I've been a Nick Cave fan since the early '80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I've always followed his work and loved it.

If you find yourself as a person in unfamiliar territory, you will grasp on to what is already familiar.