Not naive,' Conch shell had corrected him. 'He simply has not been taught to fear the things you fear.

A thing is good because it is good, not because it is natural. A thing is bad because it is bad, not because its artificial. It is not a damn iota better to be bitten by a rattlesnake than shot by a gun.

Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air - moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh - felt as if it were being exhaled into one's face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing.

I journey to the east, where I have been told, there are men who have taught death some manners.

Here's an idea: let's get over ourselves, buy a cherry pie, and go fall in love with life.

To achieve the impossible; it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.

The trouble with you is that the only way you can communicate is through art. You’ve never learned to communicate your feelings to a man. You don’t even want to communicate in a relationship. You think that if you open up to love, you’ll lose your independence or your self-expression or creativity or whatever you call all that passionate, wonderful stuff that makes you feel alive inside.