To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent.

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.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

The only way I could finish a book and get a plot was just to keep making it longer until something happens.

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

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.

There's people in hell who want ice water.