Being a writer is a rather hazardous occupation and there is a horribly high rate of writers who barely have the money for the paper and pen they use for their craft.

Literature boils with the madcap careers of writers brought to the edge by the demands of living on their nerves, wringing out their memories and their nightmares to extract meaning, truth, beauty.

The steady pressure to consume, absorb, participate, receive, by eye, ear, mouth, and mail involves a cruelty to intestines, blood pressure, and psyche unparalleled in history.

Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.

Conformity is inevitable when folks huddle together in rebellion.

The would-bees take their honey from the flowers of creation.

The fact that all of us die anyway (the rumor turns out to be true) is a mere detail in the celestial glow of imagination. The artist's eyes destroy death.

Isolation from power makes men look for a mob in which they can be strong.

The magic will which makes us see the other side of our natures-dream and disaster, catastrophe and fulfillment-is the great permanent challenge of humanity.

If mankind is naturally good, he is sure going against his nature more and more of the time. It sounds like a bad joke: the paranoids are after us.

With short stories, the story-teller must have a story to tell, not merely some sweet prose to take out for a walk

Forgiveness is brave, sets us free from darkness, and allows light to shine the sweet fragrance of life into our souls

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.

The city mouse lives in a house, The garden mouse lives in a bower

I feel a lot of people listen to what I have to say.

And in my classes, I will talk most of the time, and you will listen most of the time. Because you may be smart, but I've been smart longer.

Students are often taught when to use a particular method and how to use it, but not how to effectively write up their research plan and then later their research results.

I have spent my life going from mania to mania. Somehow it has all paid off.

Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic. He didn't need to do this to himself. It's unworthy of him.

I am more convinced than ever that mindsets toward learning could matter more than anything else we teach.