“What the hell are they all looking for? A way out. A way to the right way out. A way to leave. A way to go. A way to have had it, to have had enough of it, to be done with it. A decent way to give it all over to the giver of it all,”

“The purpose of art is to give the traveling human race an improved map that shows the way to itself. If art isn't for *that*, what is it for?”

“I believe there are ways whose ends are life instead of death.”

“Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.”

“You write a hit play the same way you write a flop”

“All of the sudden," he said, "I feel different-- not like I ever felt before. Even when Papa died I didn't feel this way. In two days everything is changed. I'm lonely and I don't now what I'm lonely for”

“He's finding out, he's doing all right, he'll go to school but nobody's going to teach him anything.”