I think America, really, is over.

Publishers seem to be in an alcoholic haze most of the time. Well, the publishers have no idea what a writer is.

Almost everything official in America is a huge fraud.

If you're a writer, you have to be an egomaniac. You have to just believe in yourself, which is hard work.

Feeling is taboo, especially in New York. I read in some little magazine the other day that The New Yorker and The New York Times were sclerotic, meaning, "completely turned to rock." The critics here are that way.

There are no manners left in America at all, because all you're doing is kicking the person next to you so that you can consume more, see more, and get more.

No one looks at a television, and no one hears it. It's a poison.