What a bog and labyrinth the human essence is... We are all overbrained and overemotioned.

Time is what makes good stories. Much has been cooking for a long time, and at last finds an out in narration one day. That's a supreme joy. And why the characters keep showing up.

Whoever you are, be that person with all your might. Time goes by faster than we thought. It is a thief so quiet. You must let yourself be loved and you must love, parts of you that never loved must open and love. You must announce yourself in all particulars so you can have yourself.

I grew up when people seemed actually to be hurting themselves for their art. Of course, some of it was phony.

I wake my wife up at 3 a.m. and say, "Listen to this!"

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.

A writers job is to destroy and then to build the thing back up again by a chosen means.