Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world.

I read a lot. I liked a tremendous number of poets and writers. The person whose work I liked the most was Joyce.

My job is to get people to write something truthful, something about truth and beauty - wherever they are - and to understand how literature is made. And then if they become great writers, that's great, and probably has nothing to do with me.

If I miss anything, it's being able to hang out in the city of New York meeting people and talking to them on the corner.

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

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

What we owe men is some freedom from their part in a murderous game in which they kick each other to death with one foot, bracing themselves on our various comfortable places with the other.