“There is nothing quite like the expectancy of the beginning writer, unless it is the conceit of the successful one.”

“When I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself, to do it right, with power, and force, and delight, and gamble.”

“few writers like other writers' works. The only time they like them is when they are dead or if they have been for a long time. Writers only like to sniff their own turds. I am one of those. I don't even like to talk to writers, look at them or worse, listen to them. And the worst is to drink with them, they slobber all over themselves, really look piteous, look like they are searching for the wing of the mother.I'd rather think about death than about other writers. Far more pleasant.”

“There was nothing glorious about the life of a drinker or the life of a writer.”

“The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers. Like flies on the same turd.”

“It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun”

“People don't need love. What they need is success in one form or another. It can be love but it needn't be.”