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

Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity.

I went out there for a thousand a week, and I worked Monday, and I got fired Wednesday. The guy that hired me was out of town Tuesday.

The devil lives in a double-shot", Roman explains himself obscurely. "I got a great worm inside. Gnaws and gnaws. Every day I drown him and every day he gnaws. Help me drown the worm, fellas.

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

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.

... Chicago divided your heart. Leaving you loving the joint for keeps. Yet knowing it never can love you.