Good is not the opposite of evil, joy is the opposite of evil.

There are writers I know and respect who are very good about what's outside, and not too hot about what's inside.

I require and enforce as non-interrupted a state of living as you can get in America right now without going off to live by yourself in the mountains.

My spirit life very much depends on my work. My work very much depends on my spirit life. And I pray every day, as part of my own ritual, to a god I believe in, not a god somebody else believes in.

All paths cause pain, so to chose the safe over the audacious will not give you less pain, only less beauty.

Creativity is the vulnerability to spiritual and physical sensation, and to experience, combined with and acting upon a certain level of skill, combined with the compulsion or longing or need or desire to give.

Courage can't make you an artist, but without that courage, you won't remain one for long. First is the courage to be alone in the room where you create, and the courage to face that indefinitely, with no one to say if you are any good or not. Then, there is the courage to follow your work wherever it's going to take you. And the courage to fight for your work.