People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

The writer's greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.

Experience is a private, very largely speechless affair.

Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated – in the main, abominably – because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.

There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform

People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.

A writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees.