Your friend is intellectually honourable," Jimmy's mother would say. "He doesn't lie to himself.

Maybe that's what love is, I thought: it's being pissed off.

We are very short on organs, and the pig solution is probably a lot better than the human clone solution - though maybe not for the pigs.

You're sad because you're sad. It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical. Go see a shrink or take a pill, or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll you need to sleep. Well, all children are sad but some get over it. Count your blessings. Better than that, buy a hat. Buy a coat or a pet. Take up dancing to forget.

You always think, 'Oh, if only I had a little chalet in the mountains! How great that would be and I'd do all this writing' Except, no, I wouldn't. I'd do the same amount of writing I do now and the rest of the time I'd go stir crazy. If you're waiting for the perfect moment you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There's nothing foolproof.

I would not change [my past work] anymore than I would airbrush a photo of myself.

I suppose it's everyone's fate to be reduced to quaintness by those younger than themselves.