“There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking.”

“I'm just not in a writing mood, but I keep going. What if the garbage man were not in a garbage mood? or the doctor not in a healing mood?”

“Men have mood swings. Women have mood leaps, mood swirls, mood loop-de-loops.”

“Freedom is only to be found where there is burden to be shouldered. In creative achievements this burden always represents an imperative and a need that weighs heavily upon man’s mood, so that he comes to be in a mood of melancholy. All creative action resides in a mood of melancholy, whether we are clearly aware of the fact or not, whether we speak at length about it or not. All creative action resides in a mood of melancholy, but this is not to say that everyone in a melancholy mood is creative.”

“When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.”

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.”