The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful.

I sometimes have these spells of compulsive truth. But as Lady Macbeth would say, "The fit is momentary."

I was raised a Christian and was a stone-faced acid head.

Anti-drug fanatics and cops are the criminals - it's like McCarthyism. They need someone to dislike to distract the public from the really important problems.

To hell with facts! We need stories.

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.

Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.