During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in - and which we lost - every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.

And what is literature, Rabo," he said, "but an insider's newsletter about affairs relating to molecules, of no importance to anything in the universe but a few molecules who have the disease called 'thought'.

Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go looking for it, and I think it can often be poisonous.

Vietnam was a country where America was trying to make people stop being communists by dropping things on them from airplanes.

Earthlings are the great explainers, explaining why this event is structured as it is, telling how other events may be achieved or avoided.

Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn't it such a relief to have somebody say that?

What the Gospels actually said was: don't kill anyone until you are absolutely sure they aren't well connected.