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.

And never, ever, no matter what else you do in your whole life, never sleep with anyone whose troubles are worse than your own.

(Chicago is) the only major city in the country where you can easily buy your way out of a murder rap.

Thinking of Poe, thinking of Mark Twain and Vachel Lindsay, thinking of Jack London and Tom Wolfe, one begins to feel there is almost no way of becoming a creative writer in America without being a loser.

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

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

Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real.