This is less teaching than damage control. You may as well paint a house that’s on fire.

I'm always trying to reach a transcendent point, a romantic point, but reach it in a really unconventional way, a really profane way. To get to that romantic, touching, heartbreaking place, but through a lot of acts of profanity.

Marla's philosophy of life, she told me, is that she can die at any moment. The tragedy of her life is that she doesn't.

Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying?

I always thought I'd write when I retired - when I turned 65. But by the time I was 33, to tell you the truth, I was a little bored with drugs and sex, and I thought I'd do the writing thing.

Every high school has its Romeo and Juliet, one tragic couple. So does every generation.

Proof that no investment is yours forever.