Redemption is promised at the low price of surrender of your critical faculties.

All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.

One can't live without fear, it's a question of what is your attitude towards fear? I'm afraid of a sordid death. I'm afraid that I will die in an ugly or squalid way, and cancer can be very vigorous in that respect.

There are also people who say it's God's curse on me that I should have it near my throat because that was the organ of blasphemy which I used for so many years. I've used many other organs to blaspheme as well if it comes to that.

Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also those who are most likely to decide that some things, after all, are worth fighting for.

I'm here as a product of process of evolution, which doesn't make very many exceptions. And which rates life relatively cheaply.

An individual deficient in the sense of humor represents more of a challenge to our idea of the human than a person of subnormal intelligence