The bar... is an exercise in solitude. Above all else, it must be quiet, dark, very comfortable-and, contrary to modern mores, no music of any kind, no matter how faint. In sum, there should be no more than a dozen tables, and a client that doesn't like to talk.

Tobacco and alcohol, delicious fathers of abiding friendships and fertile reveries.

Mystery is the essential element of every work of art.

Thank God I'm an atheist.

If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence.

Thank God, I am still an atheist.

Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.