“You know what turns dirt into diamonds?""Pressure. Weight. Heat...""The geological equivalent of torture.”

“Lovemaking is the consolation for living in the body, just as art is the consolation for living in the world.”

“To see someone you love in so much pain—especially emotional pain that can’t be remedied—was the worst form of torture.”

“People will think you brilliant only if you tell them what they know. To avoid being thought brilliant, avoid knowing what they know. Write to discover to yourselfwhat you know.Anarchism is Not Enough”

“Sometimes you don't know it. What you have been waiting your whole life for. You don't know until it is happening.”

“John Updike, in that book you gave me, he said the dead make space. Do you know what I think? Updike doesn't know dick about what it's like to be a homicide cop in Baltimore.”

“That's what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what's coming, of what you'll lose and what you'll gain, and what kind of person you'll grow up to be.”