I found out about reviews early on. They're mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That's probably why I'm less angry than some writers, who are so narcissistic they consider every line of every review, even a thoughtful one, as major treason.

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 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.

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

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

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.