“The brains of members of the Press departments of motion-picture studios resemble soup at a cheap restaurant. It is wiser not to stir them.”

“Some minds are like soup in a poor restaurant—better left unstirred.”

“I'm on the New York State Council for the Arts now, and every so often some other member talks about sending notices to college English departments about some literary opportunity, and I say, "Send them to the chemistry departments, send them to the zoology departments, send them to the anthropology departments and the astronomy departments and physics departments, and all the medical and law schools. That's where the writers are most likely to be.”

“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.”

“All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.”

“If you were cheap we'd be having sex now, soup later.'That's supposed to be funny. It is, but only a little.”