Love is something that hangs up behind the bathroom door and smells of Lysol.

I've seen a lot of patriots and they all died just like anybody else if it hurt bad enough and once they were dead their patriotism was only good for legends; it was bad for their prose and made them write bad poetry. If you are going to be a great patriot i.e. loyal to any existing order of government (not one who wishes to destroy the existing for something better) you want to be killed early if your life and works won't stink.

Religion is like an ice cold whiskey on a hot day.

Those who say they want to be writers, and aren’t writing, don’t.

Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.

Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her?