Dreiser wanted to write the next great American novel, and his desperation pervades [ Sister Carrie ] like an unsavory pit stain.

Assure a man that he has a soul and then frighten him with old wives' tales as to what is to become of him afterward, and you have hooked a fish, a mental slave.

I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence.

Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards.

How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.

Let no one underestimate the need of pity. We live in a stony universe whose hard, brilliant forces rage fiercely.

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

Life is made for the strong. There is no mercy in it for the weak– none...Such is the tragedy of desire.

Love is the only thing you can really give in all this world. When you give love, you give everything.

Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail.

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

When we reach our highest potential, we will find our highest love.

I'd rather have less time than I think, than less think than I have time.

Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!

Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends.

Religion idolizes concepts and avoids personal experience.

You can tell when you have crossed the frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.

Sometimes a winner is just a dreamer who never gave up.

The bad guys, when they start getting picked off, they're upset that their friends died, too. But that's the thing. That's what life is. It's that weird gray area.

Too much to know is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name.

A good stand-up, you lead the audience. You don't kowtow to the audience. Sometimes the audience is wrong. I always think the audience is wrong.