I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks.

The voice of the Constitution is the inescapably solemn self-consciousness of the people giving the law unto themselves.

All over the world today, not just in the totalitarian countries, assiduous functionaries in Ministries of Truth are clubbing history dumb and rendering language insensible.

I have committed many sins in my life. This precise sin-the sin against poets-is without absolution.

The theory for admitting accomplice testimony that is uncorroborated is that conspiracy is by its nature secretive and that only the parties to it can know it occurred. But in practice this means the accomplice's guilt is modified to the degree that he can convict the defendant.

Stories distribute the suffering so that it can be borne.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.