One can only face in others what one can face in oneself.

Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

We can make America what America must become.

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.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.