All men are loyal, but their objects of allegiance are at best approximate.

not every boy thrown to the wolves becomes a hero.

Nothing is loathsomer than the self-loathing of a self one loathes.

Self knowledge is always bad news.

You’re probably wasting time on things like eating and sleeping. Cease that, and read all of philosophy and all of literature. Also art. Plus politics and a few other things. The history of everything.

The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world.

Printed prose is historically a most peculiar, almost an aberrant way of telling stories, and by far the most inherently anesthetic: It is the only medium of art I can think of which appeals directly to none of our five senses. The oral and folk tradition in narrative made use of verse or live-voice dynamics, embellished by gesture and expression--a kind of rudimentary theater--as do the best raconteurs of all times. Commonly there was musical accompaniment as well: a kind of one-man theater-of-mixed-means.