“Writing without responsibility is like taking out your cloths in public and begging people to not look at you.”

“Unless you are terribly, terribly careful, you run the danger-- without even knowing it is happening to you-- of slipping into the fatal error of reflecting the public taste instead of creating it. Your responsibility is to the public consciousness, not to the public view of itself.”

“To write poetry, like sincere poetry, it is like performing heart surgery on yourself without anesthesia…in public…You are peeling back layers. You are dissecting yourself…You do not know what they [the audience] is going to do when you reach into yourself and rip out your organs to be displayed”

“Keep your shirt on," she said with a laugh at her bad joke. "Your clothes are at the laundry. They'lldeliver them as soon as they're ready.""And in the meantime?""Looks like you're naked."His jaw worked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I beg your pardon?""Beg all you want, you're still going to be naked." Tabitha paused at the wicked image in her mind."Come to think of it, a gorgeous, begging, naked man… that's the stuff of fantasies. Begging won't getyou your clothes, but it could get you something else." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.”

“Everyone has to act out of character sometimes. It's like taking your clothes off: you feel free without your character but very naked, unprotected. Unfinished. So you get dressed again- you put on yourself-and then you know who you are.”

“Looks like you’re naked.”His jaw worked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I beg your pardon?”“Beg all you want, you’re still going to be naked.” Tabitha paused at the wicked image in her mind. “Come to think of it, a gorgeous, begging, naked man… that’s the stuff of fantasies. Begging won’t get you your clothes, but it could get you something else.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.”