none of what I know is out of books. ... I prefer tactual learning. Touching, on the quick of the sore nail, of present, mobile life. To toy, to gnaw, to tear: at the living element of pain. Like at a living drumstick.

If happiness comes at all: which is by no means prearranged; it comes by the way, while you are seeking for something else. Something outside yourself, beyond yourself: in a brief absorption of self-forgetfulness.

There is, happily, no limit to the faith of human nature in believing what it wants to believe.

[On journalists:] They are as disruptive a menace to the public body: as grating turds in the intestines are to the private body.

Virtue in a man doesn't make you want to grab him.

[On journalists:] They are the scavengers of society who, possessing no guts of their own, tear out the guts of celebrities. They have the sycophantic, false enthusing gush of maiden aunts: who are accustomed to being trampled on doormats.

There is a great gulf between the really creative person and normal people. The totally creative person does not have the rest of his life in proper proportion.