Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES.

This is the way life goes in Big Sur. Waiting for the mail, watching the sea-lions in the surf or the freighters on the horizon, sitting in the tubs at Hot Springs, once in a while a bit of drink - and, most of the time, working at what ever it is that you came here to work on, whether it be painting, writing, gardening or the simple art of living your own life.

Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Journalism is "a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world of misfits and drunkards and failures.

A man has to BE something; he has to matter.