What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.

Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.

Taste has no system and no proofs.

Writing is a little door. Some fantasies, like big pieces of furniture, won’t come through.

AIDS occupies such a large part in our awareness because of what it has been taken to represent. It seems the very model of all the catastrophes privileged populations feel await them.

Each generation has to reinvent spirituality.

Creativity needs to be taken care of. It's like a big baby that needs to be nourished.