People have nothing to say, but they are afraid of saying nothing, so what they do say comes out flat and vapid and meaningless. The shadow of death is on every face.

When all lies, deceit, pretense is stripped away, what remains? The truth of a painting, or a book or a man.

If I had my way we'd sleep every night all wrapped around each other like hibernating rattlesnakes.

How long does it take man to realize that he cannot want what he wants? You have to live in hell to see heaven.

Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative.

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

I began to get a feeling familiar to me from my bartending days of being the only sane man in a nuthouse. It doesn't make you feel superior but depressed and scared, because there is nobody you can contact.