Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught—prayer, fasting and self-mutilation.

My mother studied English and drama at the University of Pennsylvania, where my father studied architecture. She was a great influence in all sorts of ways, a wicked wit.

There is no moment that exceeds in beauty that moment when one looks at a woman and finds that she is looking at you in the same way that you are looking at her. The moment in which she bestows that look that says, "Proceed with your evil plan, sumbitch.

Well chaps first I'd like to say a few vile things more or less at random, not only because it is expected of me but also because I enjoy it.

Anathematization of the world is not an adequate response to the world.

We are what we have been told about ourselves. We are the sum of the messages we have received. The true messages. The false messages.

Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.