The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life to a function that doesn't interest you. This situation so repelled me that I was driven to drink, starvation, and mad females, simply as an alternative.

but as God said, crossing his legs, I see where I have made plenty of poets but not so very much poetry.

Everything was a trap: women, drugs, whiskey, wine, scotch, beer - even beer - cigars, and cigarettes. Traps: Work or no work. Traps: Artistry or no artistry; everything sucked you into some spiderweb. I disdained the use of the needle for the same reason that I disdained some so-called beautiful women - the price was far beyond the measure of the worth. I didn't want to hustle that hard.

...in that drunken place you would like to hand your heart to her and say touch it but then give it back.

As we go on with our lives we tend to forget that the jails and the hospitals and the madhouses and the graveyards are packed.

Joan of Arc had style. Jesus had style.

You can steal my women but don't play with my whiskey.