I didn't want any degrees if all the ill-read literates and radio announcers and pedagogical dummies I knew had them by the peck.

if somebody at least listens it not too bad

That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think.

I'd swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.

In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

I was six when I saw that everything was God, and my hair stood up, and all, Teddy said. It was on a Sunday, I remember. My sister was a tiny child then, and she was drinking her milk, and all of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was doing was pouring God into God, if you know what I mean.