I wanted very much to be Miles Davis when I was a boy, but without the practice. It just looked like an endless road.

You need to see a bit of hell now and then. That, and great joy.

I wouldn't buy somebody's album on a dare if they called him a musician's musician. I don't write to be a writer's writer. I don't want to be like the little-magazine writer.

You've got to lie to stay halfway interested in yourself.

My stories do have plot. They're not just scattered language; they're controlled, toward an end.

The alcohol had the code and mystery about it as a writer's drug, but I'm glad that's been debunked. But the trouble with the drinking, much as I hate to admit it, is it helped the work.

I never pulled a loaded pistol on anybody, but it got around that I did. It got turned into lore. It's a myth. There's so much bad gun stuff.