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.

I try to write into the heart of experience. Then, through the experience of the writing, that heart reveals itself to me. To write it down for others, as a door to go through it they choose, is the price of the experience, the price of the ticket. This is the demand that God, if you like, puts on you for being an artist.

The element of obsession is terribly important for an artist.

Stop tolerating in your leaders what you would not tolerate in your friends.

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.

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

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