I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind -- and that of the minds who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town.

The quality an artist must have is objectivity in judging his work, plus the honesty and courage not to kid himself about it.

Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantlyall the time, is having to accept it.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done. The writer's only responsibility is to his art.

Who gathers the withered rose?

Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid.

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.