I think about my education sometimes. I went to the University of Chicago for awhile after the Second World War. I was a student in the Department of Anthropology. At that time they were teaching that there was absolutely no difference between anybody. They may be teaching that still. Another thing they taught was that no one was ridiculous or bad or disgusting. Shortly before my father died, he said to me, ‘You know – you never wrote a story with a villain in it.’ I told him that was one of the things I learned in college after the war.

I've often thought there ought to be a manual to hand to little kids, telling them what kind of planet they're on, why they don't fall off it, how much time they've probably got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on.

It was a thunderingly beautiful experience-voluptuous, sexual, dangerous, and expensive as hell.

Don't be reckless with other peoples hearts. And don't put up with people that are reckless with yours.

The surface of Earth heaved and seethed in fecund restlessness. Earth was most fertile where the most death was.

You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to do.

What has been America's most nurturing contribution to the culture of this planet so far? Many would say jazz. I, who love jazz, will say this instead: Alcoholics Anonymous.