Kerouac and I are not real at all. The only thing about a writer is that he has written, and not his so-called life. 'And we (will) all die and the stars will go out, one after another.

Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. "I don't have any whiskey," may be a fact but it is not a truth.

It is to be remembered that the origin of all the arts-music, painting and writing-is magical and evocative; and that magic is always used to obtain some definite result.

Writers, like elephants, have long, vicious memories. There are things I wish I could forget.

[Arab peoples] are stuck back thousands of years and they think they're going to get out with a TV set.

Junk takes everything and gives nothing but insurance against junk sickness.

Tell Allen I plead guilty to vampirism and other crimes against life. But I love him and nothing else cancels love.