Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile.

You," Said Dr. Yavitch, "are a middle-road liberal, and you haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want -- and what I want now is a drink.

Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag.

Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. In protest, I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago, and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize.

Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?

Writers have a rare power not given to anyone else: we can bore people long after we are dead.

Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.