Children will listen to anything elders say to survive, and if you grew up without an elder telling you there was a god, what did your parents say to you?

If you are able to explain suffering, a man once told him, you weren't really there.

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

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

Most novels I come across have all the excitement of a long trip on a bus with a sensitive glee club. Yammer and chat.

I lost my second marriage because of drinking, and I loved the woman very much. But I thought I needed booze to write. I'm glad I was disabused.

Randomness I love. And I still love just a holler right in the middle of an ongoing narrative. Pain or joy, ecstasy.