Sweet Christ, you must know that a man will go further for any poem than for any woman ever born.

Once in a dream I saw a snake swallowing its own tail, it swallowed and swallowed until it got halfway round, and there it stopped and there it stayed, it was stuffed with its own self. Some fix, that. We only have ourselves to go on, and it's enough.

It's better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.

sometimes I hate you," she said.

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

I want so much that is not here and do not know where to go.

He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.