Those who are truly decrepit, living corpses, so to speak, are the middle-aged, middle-class men and woman who are stuck in their comfortable grooves and imagine that the status quo will least forever or else are so frightened it won't, that they have retreated into their mental bomb shelters to wait it out.

The American white man (not to speak of the Indian, the Negro, the Mexican) hasn't a ghost of a chance. If he has any talent he's doomed to have it crushed one way or another. The American way is to seduce a man by bribery and make a prostitute of him. Or else to ignore him, starve him into submission and make a hack of him.

I'd rather sit down and write a letter than call someone up. I hate the telephone.

To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.

The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it.

What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.

For there is only one great adventure and that is inward toward the self, and for that, time nor space nor even deeds matter.