I'm not a philosopher.

In California everyone goes to a therapist, is a therapist, or is a therapist going to a therapist.

all his prayers of the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved.

Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.

There is no shame — having a dirty face — the shame comes when you keep it dirty.

Talent is a valued tormentor.

But there were moments when she played songs that made you wonder where she learned them, where indeed she came from. Harsh-tender wandering tunes with words that smacked of pinewoods or prairie. One went: Don’t wanna sleep, Don’t wanna die, Just wanna go a-travelin’ through the pastures of the sky; and this one seemed to gratify her the most, for often she continued it long after her hair hard dried, after the sun had gone and there were lighted windows in the dusk.