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

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

There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Humility, -which does not exist either). There is only Slavery (walls around one) and absence-of-Slavery (ability to walk in any direction, or to remain still).

That is our ‘pointed task. Love & die.

Literature bores me, especially great literature

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.

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