I have stolen more quotes and thoughts and purely elegant little starbursts of writing from the Book of Revelation than anything else in the English language - and it is not because I am a biblical scholar, or because of any religious faith, but because I love the wild power of the language and the purity of the madness that governs it and makes it music.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.

I felt a strange tightness coming over me, and I reacted instinctively – for the first time in a long, long while – by slipping my notebook into my belt and reaching down to take off my watch. The first thing to go in a street fight is your watch, and once you’ve lost a few, you develop a certain instinct that lets you know when it’s time to get the thing off your wrist and into a safe pocket.

The thing that was important to me about Hemingway at the time was that Hemingway taught me that you could be a writer and get away with it.

All advice can only be a product of the man who gives it.

In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.