I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me

To make a point of declaring friendship is to cheapen it. For men's emotions are very rarely put into words successfully.

Allen [ Ginsberg] was a particular friend, one of my heroes, really. I knew him almost as long as I've been writing.

I never knew where I was going, but I ripped the tits off of everything that got in my way. By the time they figured me out, it was too late.

Get out of control, but appear under control. It?s not bad to alarm other people, though ? it?s good for them.

The greatest mania of all is passion: and I am a natural slave to passion: the balance between my brain and my soul and my body is as wild and delicate as the skin of a Ming vase.

Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist.