I’m a word freak. I like words. I’ve always compared writing to music. That’s the way I feel about good paragraphs. When it really works, it’s like music.

I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes.

Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach.

I was once arrested with [Allen] Ginsburg. He was a big help to me. He was one of the few people who read unknown writer's work. Maybe he was just hustling me. He liked to flirt, Allen. They called him a monster but he was only falling in love.

No music + Bad TV = Bad mood & no pages.

Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race.

There is nothing Modern about doing dumb things for dumb reasons.