New York is the last true city.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

Between Ennui and Ecstasy unwinds our whole experience of time.

Mythology is Fan Fiction - for the Gods.

The heavens will not be filled with those who never made mistakes but with those who recognized that they were off course and who corrected their ways to get back in the light of gospel truth.

Christina Aguilera, to me, has one of the greatest voices of our time and I got nothing but respect for her.

The paper standard is self-destructive.

From dust thou art to dust returneth, was not spoken of the soul.

There are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is the most successful. As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

I'm often very relaxed when I'm on the wire.

People who've been through our educational system, they think they're thinking, when they're just repeating like parrots.

I told you I was ill. (On his headstone)