A mouth of no distinction but well practiced, before I entered my teens, in irony. For what is irony but the repository of hurt? And what is hurt but the repository of hope?

Writing! The activity for which the only adequate bribe is the possibility of suicide, one day.

I'm very American in the sense of being an explorer. America is filled with people who are interested in exploring landscapes, either external or internal. A westward nation of explorers.

The secret of being a writer: not to expect others to value what you've done as you value it. Not to expect anyone else to perceive in it the emotions you have invested in it. Once this is understood, all will be well.

Reading yields a wish to write, I think, except if the reading is dull and uninspiring.

Of our hurts we make monuments of survival. If we survive.

I could never take the idea of religion very seriously.