I would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred 'great books' - and one brave deed is worth a thousand.

All forms of government are pernicious, including good government.

A woman, as much as a man, is responsible by the age of forty for the character of her face. But women, obeying the biological imperative, strive harder to preserve a youthful appearance (the reproductive look) and lose it sooner.

Every moment is precious. And precarious.

Despair leads to boredom, electronic games, computer hacking, poetry and other bad habits.

How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.

What our economists call a depressed area almost always turns out to be a cleaner, freer, more livable place than most.