“I woke thinking: Is it possible that, after all, I am to go on living with the wild beasts while in the greater world others are out the peaks of the Himalayas, the dark heart of Arabia, and the secrets of the Poles--while in the civilized world electricity is spread to every corner, and the flying machine is invented--while in the laboratories and academies and astronomical observatories, by telescope and spectroscope and microscope, others are to discover the minute secrets of Life and the Universe--all this while I am living ignorant as a savage in the wilderness?”

“I, while the gods laugh, the world's vortex am;Maelström of passions in that hidden seaWhose waves of all-time lap the coasts of me;And in small compass the dark waters cram.- I, While the Gods Laugh, the World's Vortex Am”

“In a book of fiction the purpose is to create, for myself, the kind of world I want and to live in while I am creating it; then, as a secondary consequence, to let others enjoy this world, if, and to the extent that, they can.”

“The Non-istI am anti:I descend when others clamber up:Formally attired when others are not;I un-imbibe while others sipAt parties, and bars and on vacation trips.I'm abstract:Formless in a world of representations,Flat in a world of 3-D demonstrations,Yet occupy space/time in Einstien's manifestations,And invisible in a world of flamboyant excitations. I am black and white in a land of a million hues,Kaleidoscopic when the world's all greys and blues;Monotone and taupish while all around is crimson,But luminescent in the depths of prison.I cannot be while others do,And yet I will, when others fail to;And when they've done all they could do, I remain retired, sudued.”

“...while I am alive, I intend to live.”

“Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”