There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it, is what I'd like to know. I wish someone could tell me.

Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.

Nights without beginning that had no end. Talking about a past as if it'd really happened. Telling themselves that this time next year, this time next year, things were going to be different.

You have to have been in love to write poetry.

I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.

The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.

Ralph also took some classes in philosophy and literature and felt himself on the brink of some kind of huge discovery about himself. But it never came.