Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion.

I have taken as much as six years to prepare a book for writing. There is such a delirium of effort in the production of a book; it's like childbirth. And, like childbirth, one forgets the pains immediately so that when you come to write another one you dare to take it up again. Some precious anesthesia sees you through.

Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish.

Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else. That's what's important. You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

One pays for everything, the trick is not to pay too much of anything for anything.

Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.