I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.

These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.

We have reason to be afraid. This is a terrible place.

Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

Wishin' was dyin' but I gotta make it all this way to that bed on these feet.

Two daiquiris withdrew into a corner of a gorgeous room and one told the other a lie.

We are using our own skins for wallpaper and we cannot win.