I've no desire to be ill-dressed; but I hate the feeling that I daren't be ill-dressed if I want to.

It isn't that inspiration doesn't exist, but it comes only with writing.

Being a writer in a library is rather like being a eunuch in a harem.

Solitude and quiet are highly desirable, but the lack of them is no barrier to writing... The will to work builds all the seclusion that one needs.

There isn't, unfortunately, any way of discovering whether you can write a publishable novel except by writing it.

Writing's not always a pleasure to me, but if I'm not writing every other pleasure loses its savour.

Some piously record 'In the beginning God', but I say 'In the beginning hydrogen'.

Drawing makes you look at the world more closely. It helps you to see what you're looking at more clearly. Did you know that?"I said nothing."What colour's a blackbird?" she said."Black""Typical!

I have a past, okay? And you really don't want to get involved with it.''Everybody's got a past, ' he said. 'That doesn't mean you can't have a future.

Memory is more indelible than ink.

Eat to please thyself but dress to please others.

Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

Critics are like eunuchs; they can tell you what to do, but they can't do it themselves!

I think, that after the arrival of the mechanical clock we see an explosion in scientific thinking and scientific discovery.

I was born in Detroit, in an all black neighborhood.