“I avoided any direct reference to Jews and Blacks, who had never given me any trouble. All my trouble had come from white gentiles.”

“Trouble and pain were what kept a man alive. Or trying to avoid trouble and pain. It was a full time job.”

“I just want a hot cup of coffee,black,and I don’t want to hear about your troubles.”

“The trouble with a mask is it never changes”

“The place trembled with sound. I didn't need to do anything. They would do it all. But you had to be careful. Drunk as they were they could immediately detect any false gesture, any false word. You could never underestimate an audience. They had paid to get in; they had paid for drinks; they intended to get something and if you didn't give it to them they'd run you right into the ocean.”

“there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the averagehuman being to supply any given army on any given day and the best at murder are those who preach against itand the best at hate are those who preach love and the best at war finally are those who preach peace”

“Writing was never work for me. It had been the same for as long as I could remember: turn on the radio to a classical music station, light a cigarette or a cigar, open the bottle. The typer did the rest. All I had to do was be there. The whole process allowed me to continue when life itself offered very little, when life itself was a horror show. There was always the typer to soothe me, to talk to me, to entertain me, to save my ass. Basically that's why I wrote: to save my ass, to save my ass from the madhouse, from the streets, from myself.”