“I'm a California boy. I don't tell anyone how to write and no one tells me.(Paris Review Interview)”

“Boy," said the old man at last, "in five years, how would you like a job selling shoes in this emporium?""Gosh, thanks, Mr. Sanderson, but I don't know what I'm going to be yet.""Anything you want to be son," said the old man, "you'll be. No one will ever stop you.”

“Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life.”

“I'm not anyone, I'm just myself; whatever I am, I am something, and now I'm something you can't help.”

“I don't believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously."[Writer’s Digest Interview (Robert Jacobs, Writer’s Digest, February 1976)]”

“I want to hold onto this funny thing. God, it's gotten big on me. I don't know what it is. I'm so damned unhappy, I'm so mad, and I don't know why. I feel like I'm putting on weight. I feel fat. I feel like I'm saving a lot of things, and I don't know what. I might even start reading books.”

“I've tasted every victual and danced every dance; now there's one last tart I haven't bit on, one time I haven't whistled. but I'm not afraid. I'm truly curious. Death won't get a crumb by my mouth I won't keep and savor. So don't you worry over me. Now, all of you go, and let me find my sleep....”