The empty, the angry, the lonely, the tricked, we are all museums of fear.

Long before I became 'rich and famous' I just sat round drinking wine and staring at the walls.

a good book can make an almost impossible existence, liveable ( from 'the luck of the word' )

and now sometimes I'm interviewed, they want to hear about life and literature and I get drunk and hold up my cross-eyed, shot, runover de-tailed cat and I say,"look, look at this!" but they don't understand, they say something like,"you say you've been influenced by Celine?" no," I hold the cat up,"by what happens, by things like this, by this, by this!

Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer.

Humanity, you never had it from the beginning." That was my motto.

When you play the field selfishly everything works against you: one can’t insist on love or demand affection. you’re finally left with whatever you have been willing to give which often is: nothing.