There were always men looking for jobs in America. There were always all these usable bodies. And I wanted to be a writer. Almost everybody was a writer. Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer. Of those fifty guys in the room, probably fifteen of them thought they were writers. Almost everybody used words and could write them down, i.e., almost everybody could be a writer. But most men, fortunately, aren't writers, or even cab drivers, and some men - many men - unfortunately aren't anything.

Many a good man has been put under the bridge by a woman.

We are like roses that have never bothered to bloom when we should have bloomed and it is as if the sun has become disgusted with waiting

I thought you were sane," I said, "but you're just as crazy as the rest of them.

It's hot tonight and half the neighborhood is drunk. the other half is dead. if I have any advice about writing poetry it's - don't. I'm going to send out for some fried chicken.

The writer has no responsibility other than to jack off in bed alone and write a good page.

there's no defense except all the errors made