There are lots of things worth doing that are no way to make a living. They are agreeable ways to make a more agreeable life.

Every writer has to write his speech.

It is never a mistake to say good-bye.

No matter how wonderful a sentence is, if it doesn't add new and useful information, it should be removed.

We have such a young culture that there is an opportunity to contribute wonderful new myths to it, which will be accepted.

I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.

The Great Depression was going on, so that the station and the streets teemed with homeless people, just as they do today. The newspapers were full of stories of worker layoffs and farm foreclosures and bank failures, just as they are today. All that has changed, in my opinion, is that, thanks to television, we can hide a Great Depression. We may even be hiding a Third World War.