Ideals jump across the hierarchies of the printed word.

The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous. [...] If you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it.

Some of the words and symbols and images from childhood will continually be part and parcel of my personality.

A writer helps to show you things you knew but didn't know you knew.

God, I'm such a lazy writer - I can't even think up new names.

I also believe in cigarettes, cholesterol, alcohol, carbon monoxide, masturbation, the Arts Council, nuclear weapons, the Daily Telegraph, and not properly labeling fatal poisons, but above all else, most of all, I believe in the one thing that can come out of people's mouths: vomit.

That vision of a common culture is now simply a remote wistfulness.