My spirit life is also the medium in which I live. It's not something that comes and goes. Without one the other wouldn't exist.

We have to be realistic about the brutal demands a money culture puts on the psyche, and there is a great cost to this in terms of creativity. Look at the state of people at 65. How many of them become creative after having to survive in the money culture?

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

To be physically astute and psychologically tended, yet morally insulated and conceptually blind--is to be crazy, not healthy.

That's what America's all about, man, if it's about anything. You can choose your own name.

An artist doesn't depend upon inspiration or have to have it. An artist doesn't depend on mood, certainly not if you're earning your living with it. One of the definitions of a professional is you can do some writing if you have to, even in the most extreme situations.

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