“You will not reap the fruit of individuality in your children if you clone their education.”

“Our culture believes strong individuals can transcend their circumstances. I myself don't much enjoy books by Hardy or Dreiser or Wharton, where the outside world is so strong, so overwhelming, that the individual hasn't a chance. I get impatient, I keep feeling that somehow the deck is stacked unfairly. That is the point, of course, but my feeling is that if that's true, I don't want to play. I prefer to move to another table where I can retain my illusion, if illusion it be, that I'm working only against only probabilities, and have a chance to win. Then if you lose, you can blame it on your own poor playing. That is called a tragic flaw, and like guilt, it's very comforting. You can go on believing that there really is a right way, and you just didn't find it.”

“I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic. ”

“You should have to pass an IQ test before you breed. You have to take a driving test to operate vehicles and an SAT test to get into college. So why don’t you have to take some sort of test before you give birth to children? When I am President, that’s the first rule I will institute.”

“Maybe it begins the day you pledge allegiance,face the flag and suddenly clutch your left claviclebecause you find a tender puff of breastwhere yesterday your heart wasOr maybe it happens later when you're walking homefrom school and they rush you on the street--those boys who reach out fast, disgrace your blousewith rubs of dirt, their laughterstinging hot against your face.And you bite your rage, swallow your tearsbecause the fact is, your territory's up for grabsand somehow it's your own damned fault.And one day you stand at your mirrorarmed with jars and razor blades against the scentsand grasses of your shameless bleeding body,and you see what you've become--a freakmanufactured to disguise the real one,the one who sometimes still recalls your innocence,the time before you became a dirty joke.And maybe it begins to end the dayyou try against the odds to love yourself again.Even though you know the worst thingyou can call someone is cunt,you try to love the flesh and fur you are,that convoluted, prehistoric flower,petals dripping weeds and echoingvaguely fragrant odors of the sea.”

“How you think about your customers influences how you respond to them.”

“Is adult amusement killing our children, or is killing our children amusing adults?”