There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves.

Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer.

The Planet drifts to random insect doom.

Time: a landing field! Death needs time like a junkie needs junk.

I started to write in about 1950; I was thirty-five at the time; there didn't seem to be any strong motivation. I simply was endeavoring to put down in a more or less straightforward journalistic style something about my experiences with addiction and addicts.

I think anybody incapable of changing his mind is crazy.

I'm creating an imaginary — it's always imaginary — world in which I would like to live.