It is strange how fragile this man-creature is.....in one second he's just garbage. Garbage, that's all.

The avocation of assessing the failures of better men can be turned into a comfortable livelihood, providing you back it up with a Ph.D.

There's people in hell who want ice water.

Never eat in a place called 'Mom's'.

The great trains howling from track to track all night. The taut and telegraphic murmur of ten thousand city wires, drawn most cruelly against a city sky. The rush of city waters, beneath the city streets. The passionate passing of the night's last El.

One of the best things Henry Miller ever said was that art goes all out. It's all out. It goes full length. . . . A big book is an all-out book in which you limit your life to things that pertain directly to the book.

I don't recommend being a bachelor, but it helps if you want to write.