It’s the order of things: each one gets a taste of honey then the knife.

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

The years have gone by quickly. Death sits in the seat next to me. We make a lovely couple.

After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.

I am a dolt of a man, easily made happy or even stupidly happy almost without cause and left alone I am mostly content.

pain is absurd because it exists, nothing more.

writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all