“I didn't want to see anything worse than me befall her.”

“The boy didn't know where he and his family were, other than one name: Mississippi.”

“I only had one life, and I'd be damned if I'd live it in a way that would make me unhappy and please somebody else. I had already lived that kind of life, too much of it already.”

“they had more shit on tv than you could believe now.”

“If you want to write, you've got to shut yourself up in a room and write.”

“I didn't know why something that started off feeling so good had to wind up feeling so bad. Love was a big word and it covered a lot of territory. You could spend your whole life chasing after it and wind up with nothing, be an old bitter guy with long nose hair and ear hair and no teeth, hanging out in bars, looking for somebody your age, but the chances of success went down then. After a while you got too many strikes against you.”

“After a year of therapy, my psychiatrist said to me, "Maybe life isn't for everyone.”