The air was so sweet in New Orleans it seemed to come in soft bandannas; and you could smell the river and really smell the people, and mud, and molasses, and every kind of tropical exhalation, with your nose suddenly removed from the dry ices of a Northern winter.

don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.

...do you think God made the world to amuse himself because he was bored? Because if so he would have to be mean.

Don't touch me, I'm full of snakes.

God was gone; it was the silence of his departure. It was a rainy night. It was the myth of the rainy night. Dean was popeyed with awe. This madness would lead nowhere. I didn't know what was happening to me, and I suddenly realized it was only the tea that we were smoking; Dean had bought some in New York. It made me think that everything was about to arrive - the moment when you know all and everything is decided forever.

Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.

The page is long, blank, and full of truth. When I am through with it, it shall probably be long, full, and empty with words.