...failure is a human condition, not victory over odds; for each Hellen Keller who triumphs, there are tens of millions who fail, mute and deaf and insensate as vegetables tossed upon a vast garbage pile to rot.

Every scar in my face is worth it.

Without craft, art remains private. Without art, craft is merely hackwork.

The body can't distinguish between cleansing and punishing for the body is ignorant, and mute besides.

Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an experimental novel.

Exotic: meaning you're "desired." For madness is seductive, sexy. Female madness. So long as the female is reasonably young and attractive.

A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise.