I am a correctionist. If something is wrong in society, it must be fixed. At least one should try to fix it.

In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are.

The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is the business of surprise. I never know what is coming next. The phrase that sounds in the head changes when it appears on the page. Then I start probing it with a pen, finding new meanings. Sometimes I burst out laughing at what is happening as I twist and turn sentences. Strange business, all in all. One never gets to the end of it. That’s why I go on, I suppose. To see what the next sentences I write will be.

If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient."

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself.

Apparently, 'conspiracy stuff' is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.