To get from people you had to give a piece of yourself, a real piece that mattered. Just being nice was not enough.

You don't have to be a good person to be a good writer--history shows it's better if you're not--but you have to understand your badness.

The words dripped on my consciousness, sank into my being, and carried me away to the magic long ago of once upon a time.

You can't walk alone. Many have given the illusion, but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values.

To get where you want to go, you can't only do what you like.

What do you get out of hating people, out of having this bitterness in your heart always?

With Shakespeare and poetry, a new world was born. New dreams, new desires, a self consciousness was born. I desired to know to know myself in terms of the new standards set by these books.