A story untold could be the one that kills you.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

There is a latent energy in each of us, in all areas of our lives

Good people protect people they love even if that means that pretending that everything is okay.

The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye.

Through the dark night chasing the morning lightThat headlight streaming white through the night

Night, a more perfect day.

Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift.

Anyone from my past I'm interested in, I've already stalked their homes. I like to go outside.

Come be the fire inside of me, come be the flame upon my heart. Come be the fire inside of me until You and I are one.

I remember the day I found out my draft status. I was really floored and kind of staggered around in a daze. It just hadn't occurred to me that I could end up in Vietnam

I have a regret that the entire discussion [with El Chapo]... ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs.