James Joyce buried himself in his great work. _Finnegan's Wake_ is his monument and his tombstone. A dead end.

The author: an imaginary person who writes real books.

There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.

In order to write a book, it is necessary to sit down (or stand up) and write. Therein lies the difficulty.

Why I oppose the nuclear-arms race: I prefer the human race.

Homosexuality, like androgyny, might be an instinctive racial response to overpopulation, crowding, and stress. Both flourish when empire reaches its apogee.

So I write mainly for the fun of it, the hell of it, the duty of it. I enjoy writing and will probably be a scribbler on my dying day, sprawled on some stony trail halfway between two dry waterholes.