“my youth,one time,that timeI kneweven through thenothingness,it was a celebrationof something not todobut onlyknow.”

“But my whole life has been a matter of fighting for one simple hour to do what I want to do. There was always something getting in the way of my getting to myself.”

“you are on the freeway threading through traffic now,moving both towards something and towards nothing at all as you punchthe radio on and get Mozart, which is something, and you will somehowget through the slow days and the busy days and the dulldays and the hateful days and the rare days, all both so delightfuland so disappointing becausewe are all so alike and so different.”

“You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.”

“My body gnaws at me from one side and my spirit gnaws at me from the other.”

“I was getting depressed. My life wasn't going anywhere. I needed something, the flashing of lights, glamour, some damn thing. And here I was, talking to the dead. I finished my first drink. The second was ready.”

“Writing is something that you don't know how to do. You sit down and it's something that happens, or it may not happen. So, how can you teach anybody how to write? It's beyond me, because you yourself don't even know if you're going to be able to. I'm always worried, well, you know, every time I go upstairs with my wine bottle. Sometimes I'll sit at that typewriter for fifteen minutes, you know. I don't go up there to write. The typewriter's up there. If it doesn't start moving, I say, well this could be the night that I hit the dust.”