Either way, he was always staring into a bottomless pit, or into a whirlpool that forever sucked him inexorably inward to its vortex.

His friend laughed. 'You missed your calling, Freddie, ' he said. 'You should have been one of the aforementioned clergy. Is this what marriage does to you? One shudders at the very idea.

I am still not used to being the possessor of such a grand title. I believe I shall have to start wearing a purple satin turban and carrying a lorgnette.

Survival, it is called. Often it is accidental, sometimes it is engineered by creatures or forces that we have no conception of, always it is temporary.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

Suffering ceases to be suffering when you have a redemptive perspective.

I slept and dreamt that life was beauty; I woke and found that life was duty.

Life is full of horrible mistakes.

I've had insomnia since I was five years old. I just don't require much sleep. I'm never tired.

The shamans are forever yacking about their snake oil miracles. I prefer the real McCoy, a pregnant woman.

You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.

Imagination is something you do alone.

Sometimes I would bring some of my music to the school and perform on the playground, and they'd think, "There goes Patrick, trying to entertain everyone as usual."