Entertainment provides relief. Art provokes engagement.

All I'm saying is that it's shortsighted to blame TV. It's simply another symptom. TV didn't invent our aesthetic childishness here any more than the Manhattan Project invented aggression.

God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though-and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.

I'd tell you all you want and more, if the sounds I made could be what you hear

This is so American, man: either make something your God and cosmos and then worship it, or else kill it.

People, unless they're paying attention, tend to confuse fanciness with intelligence or authority.

You have to understand, writing a novel gets very weird and invisible-friend-from-childhood-ish. Then you kill that thing, which was never really alive except in your imagination, and you're supposed to go buy groceries and talk to people at parties and stuff.