What you can become is the miracle you were born to be through the work that you do.

What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish that people wouldn't get so mad at them.

To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life.

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.

Educate yourself, welcome life's messiness, read Chekhov, avoid becoming an architect at all costs.

If your brains were dynamite there wouldn't be enough to blow your hat off.