The crowd is the gathering place of the weakest; true creation is a solitary act.

People were usually much better in their letters than in reality. They were much like poets in this way.

I was their bar freak, they needed me to make themselves feel better. just like, at times, I needed that graveyard.

This is a world where everybody’s gotta do something. Ya know, somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s gotta do something, they gotta be something. You know, a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher, all that . . . Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don’t wanna do. All the things that I don’t wanna be. Places I don’t wanna go, like India, like getting my teeth cleaned. Save the whale, all that, I don’t understand that . . .

I could read the great books but the great books don't interest me.

I don't think I have written a poem when I was completely sober. But I have written a few good ones or a few bad ones under the hammer of a black hangover when I didn't know whether another drink or a blade would be the best thing.

I hope that death contains less than this.