People took such awful chances with chemicals and their bodies because they wanted the quality of their lives to improve. They lived in ugly places where there were only ugly things to do. They didn't own doodley-squat, so they couldn't improve their surroundings. so they did their best to make their insides beautiful instead.

It's incumbent on the President to entertain. Clinton did a better job of it - and was forgiven for the scandals, incidentally. Bush is entertaining us with what I call the Republican Super Bowl, which is played by the lower classes using live ammunition.

In the era of big brains, life stories could end up any which way. Look at mine.

I'm mad about being old and I'm mad about being American. Apart from that, OK.

Hate, in the long run, is about as nourishing as cyanide.

All these years, I've been opening the window and making love to the world.

[I write] intuitively, reflexively, as if skiing down a steep mountain slope with no time to think.