He's the sort of guy that gets a laugh out of people.

Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me, but rarely did we look at one another.

The Haight is just a place; the '60s was a spirit.

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.

To be just without being mad (and the madder you get the madder you get), to be peaceful without being stupid, to be interested without being compulsive, to be happy without being hysterical... smoke grass.

Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain.

When you're around the whole Dead scene, they're there as a tribal thing; they're there as part of a rendezvous and a pow-wow.