all outcast peoples struggle to be recognized as individuals. The damage of oppression is that it robs you of your individuality. You're just a faggot. Or whatever - fill in the blank. Everything you do is seen through the prism of your gayness or your womanness or your blackness by some people.

I believe that we often disguise pain through ritual and it may be the only solace we have.

I hate the telephone. I think the lowest circle of hell is reserved for Alexander Graham Bell.

Adjectives are the curse of America.

In art as in politics we must deal with people as they are not as we wish them to be. Only by working with the real can you get closer to the ideal.

Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn't sign your name you'd have to pay cash.

Novels, like human beings, usually have their beginnings in the dark.