But I knew one more thing. That people w ho denied who they were or where they had been were in the greatest danger.

If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one’s own universe, to live on one’s own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind, is evil.

Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.

He hated crowds, never liked punk. He couldn't handle the nakedness of the rage -his own so sophisticated and finely tuned. He could never see the similarity between himself and Donnie Draino screaming into a mic.

It's their skins I'm peeling," she said. "The skins of the insipid scribblers, which I graft to the page, creating monsters of meaninglessness.

I emitted some civetlike female stink, a distinct perfume of sexual wanting, that he had followed to find me here in the dark.

A cliche is like a coin that has been handled too much. Once language has been overly handled, it no longer leaves a clear imprint.