If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well.

I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

Vitriolic really is personal. I am vitriolic. I am savage.

[Norman Mailer] is against masturbation, he's against homosexuality. He believes that murder is essentially sexual. I think he's rather an anthology of all the darkest American traits.

First coffee, then a bowel movement. Then the Muse joins me.

I was brought up to believe that what is out-of-doors should stay there and not be encouraged in any way.