I knew exactly what I was doing: I was doing nothing. because I knew there was nothing to do.

Women: I liked the colors of their clothing; the way they walked; the cruelty in some faces; now and then the almost pure beauty in another face, totally and enchantingly female. They had it over us: they planned much better and were better organized. While men were watching professional football or drinking beer or bowling, they, the women, were thinking about us, concentrating, studying, deciding - whether to accept us, discard us, exchange us, kill us or whether simply to leave us. In the end it hardly mattered; no matter what they did, we ended up lonely and insane.

That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to just do your job, you had to have an interest in it, even a passion for it.

The world had somehow gone too far, and spontaneous kindness could never be so easy.

The centuries are sprinkled with rare magic with divine creatures who help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us

First paycheck I get, I thought, I'm going to get myself a room near the downtown L.A. Public Library.

I've never met another man I'd rather be.