It is better to sit in appreciative contemplation of a world in which beauty is eternally supported on a foundation of ugliness: cut out the support, and beauty will sink from sight.

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.

Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all else, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word.

Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is.

You never oughta drink water when it ain't runnin'.

And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.