“The only way I can regain credit for my early work is to die.”

“I now believe that the only way in which Americans can rise above their ordinariness, can mature sufficiently to rescue themselves and to help rescue their planet, is through enthusiastic intimacy with works of their own imagination.”

“I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.”

“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDEDFOR THE EXISTENCE OF GODWAS MUSIC”

“Now they were regaining consciousness– were being treated to a cruel and lovely illusion.”

“Seems like the only kind of job an American can get these days is committing suicide in some way.”

“The youngest child in any family is always a jokemaker, because a joke is the only way he can enter into an adult conversation.”