Creativity is an innate function in a human being, as we see in tribal peoples, who spent their considerable leisure time making religious artifacts and sacred art. That is what I would call a direct culture, in that everybody in it is directly in touch with all the elements, both of the culture and of the environment.

Be careful how you choose your enemy, for you will come to resemble him. The moment you adapt your enemy's methods your enemy has won. The rest is suffering and historical opera.

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

The element of obsession is terribly important for an artist.

If I had the money and the drinking capacity, I'd probably live at a roulette table and let my life go to hell.

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

If your vulnerability has become hardened, it's very, very difficult to be creative.