Never write about a place until you're away from it, because that gives you perspective

'Safety', the wife of Pablo said. 'There is no such thing as safety. There are so many seeking safety here now that they make a great danger. In seeking safety now you lose all.'

Easy writing makes hard reading.

In stating as fully as I could how things really were, it was often very difficult and I wrote awkwardly and the awkwardness is what they called my style. All mistakes and awkwardness are easy to see, and they called it style.

Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved.

The time to work is shorter all the time and if you waste it you ... have committed a sin for which there is no forgiveness.

Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks. Great success shooting the knife underhand into the piano. The woodworms are so bad and eat hell out of all the furniture that you can always claim the woodworms did it.