I decided I wanted out because it was killing me, and I couldnt see where to go with it that wouldnt be fatal.

we still have the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building and the Woolworth Building, but it just seems like part of the nature of New York, that it's always shifting.

Things always change, and New York teaches you that.

Another thing that's good about writing to describe a situation or a state of consciousness is that you can finally get it right. That was my intention, and that's always interesting.

The purpose of rock n' roll is to convince girls to pay money to get close to you.

In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so.

I'm usually alone or asleep, at home.

I do everything halfway, a thing of which adults disapprove, but things done halfway are deceptive, and in a class of their own – for instance, the sun is really twice its size.

A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.

I shake my head and the tiny acrobats fall like spangles, like the cool rain on another planet, down to the inside of my feet.

I felt just overwhelmed by input: the Vietnam War and the collapse of the '60s and the proliferation of media' it just felt like everything was too much to handle and you just tuned out.

Be loving and kind all the time.

When the Supreme Court says baseball isn't run like a business, everybody jumps up and down with joy. When I say the same thing, everybody throws pointy objects at me.

The more we are true to ourselves, the more we can connect with and contribute to the world.

Reagan is doing to the country what he can no longer do to his wife.

I was born Jewish, but I am an atheist. I dont believe in God.

Men, in general, are but great children.

The need for bold and aggressive federal action to create jobs and restore confidence in our battered economy is clear.

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

I treat everyone as equals. I can't work if I'm not having fun, and I can't have fun if not everyone is happy.

As we grow older, the world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated of dead and living.