You don't do art for any other reason than to help your soul grow.

I have no culture, no humane harmony in my brains. I can't live without a culture anymore.

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.

Poverty is a relatively mild disease for even a very flimsy American soul, but uselessness will kill strong and weak souls alike, and kill every time.

If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do.

I taught writing for a while and whenever somebody would tell me they were going to write about their dad, I would tell them they might as well go write about killing puppies because neither story was going to work. It just doesn't work.

They like life alright, but that they would like it even better if they could know that it was going to end sometime.