some men never die and some men never live but we're all alive tonight.

If I bet on humanity, I'd never cash a ticket.

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

There's nothing like privacy. You know, I like people. It's nice that they might like my books and all that...but I'm not the book, see? I'm the guy who wrote it, but I don't want them to come up and throw roses on me or anything. I want them to let me breathe.

The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers. Like flies on the same turd.

I felt like crying but nothing came out. it was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad, when you can't feel any worse. I think you know it. I think everybody knows it now and then. but I think I have known it pretty often, too often.

There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.