There's nothing like privacy. You know, I like people. It's nice that they might like my books and all that...but I'm not the book, see? I'm the guy who wrote it, but I don't want them to come up and throw roses on me or anything. I want them to let me breathe.

Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don't give a damn.

we know God is dead, they've told us, but listening to you I wasn't sure.

we sat there smoking cigarettes at 5 in the morning.

there's no clarity. there was never meant to be clarity.

Writing is something that you don't know how to do. You sit down and it's something that happens, or it may not happen. So, how can you teach anybody how to write? It's beyond me, because you yourself don't even know if you're going to be able to. I'm always worried, well, you know, every time I go upstairs with my wine bottle. Sometimes I'll sit at that typewriter for fifteen minutes, you know. I don't go up there to write. The typewriter's up there. If it doesn't start moving, I say, well this could be the night that I hit the dust.

I guess for me Hemingway is a lot like it is for others: he goes down well when we are young.