“...flaky, crisp, layered, and multi-textured. Which was me. Sweet and sour. Soft and crisp. I discovered that these varied elements, that for so long had seemed at odds, were actually complementary.”

“Upon reflection, I realize that your image of me right now might be a bit skewed. Actually, kind of fucked. I am neither a nihilist, inordinately depressed, nor jaded. Though I can be and have been all of the above, and fully expect to be again.”

“God lifts us up a level, so that we are more than mere animals clawing about for our next meal. God desires us to talk, to laugh, to cry, argue, think, fuck, decide, and take action. It is his will; all of it. We need God. Especially when we think we don't.”

“...if God is a man, I am screwed, for there is nothing men like more than to show their omnipotence over others, leaving in their path only scorched earth.”

“...I believe that God requires nothing of us. There is no entrance fee or requirement for participation. He is there already, inside each of us, if only we'd stop and listen.”

“Chili is one of the great peasant foods. It is one of the few contributions America has made to world cuisine. Eaten with corn bread, sweet onion, sour cream, it contains all five of the elements deemed essential by the sages of the Orient: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter.”

“Wolfe was drinking beer and looking at pictures of snowflakes in a book someone had sent him from Czechoslovakia......Wolfe seemed absorbed in the pictures. Looking at him, I said to myself, "He's in a battle with the elements. He's fighting his way through a raging blizzard, just sitting there comfortably looking at pictures of snowflakes. That's the advantage of being an artist, of having imagination." I said aloud, "You mustn't go to sleep, sir, it's fatal. You freeze to death.”