My public life was so demanding that I wasn't doing the things that I deemed the most important.

Vowels are the most illuminated letters in the alphabet. Vowels are the colors and souls of poetry and speech. (1976 Penthouse interview)

I think masturbating is a really important function in art. People don't like to hear that kind of stuff, but it's true.

Words are just rules and regulations to me.

I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written Just Kids had I not spent all of the 80s developing my craft as a writer.

I was so unhealthy as a child, and at least three or four times my parents were told to get ready, that I would not make it.

By the time I was 10 or 11, I was completely demoralized. I thought, "I'm done. I'm never going to be a missionary," because my indiscretion column, whether it was little lies or stealing a Chunky bar, kept me from sainthood.