Every time you finish something ... you figure you've finally learned to write, right? Then you start something else and it turns out you haven't. You have learned how to write that story, or that book, but you haven't learned how to write the next one.

If you're old and you're healthy and you're active - I don't mean you have to be politically active - if you remain interested in other people and the world, then you live as well as your health will allow.

A joke is necessary at this time.

My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life.

If you want to do things, do things.

Paul Goodman was not ahead of his time but IN his time.

The wrong word is like a lie jammed inside the story.