Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

i am going to start selling air in dark orange bags marked: moon-blooms

Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.

you've got to burn straight up and down and then maybe sidewise for a while and have your guts scrambled by a bully and the demonic ladies, you've got to run along the edge of madness teetering, you've got to starve like a winter alleycat, you've go to live with the imbecility of at least a dozen cities, then maybe maybe maybe you might know where you are for a tiny blinking moment.

They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work.

I just want a hot cup of coffee,black,and I don’t want to hear about your troubles.

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