The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.

Let there be nothing harmonious about our children's playthings, lest they grow up expecting peace and order, and be eaten alive.

I'm not a drug salesman. I'm a writer." "What makes you think a writer isn't a drug salesman?

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

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

The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her. "Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?" she asked me. "The big show is inside my head," I said.

One [television] program was an interminable exploration of the question: can a woman with a low I.Q. be happily married to a man with a high one? The answer seemed to be yes and no.