Our lifestyle is evolutionarily unstable--and is therefore in the process of eliminating itself in the perfectly ordinary way.

If the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.

Indigenous people believe that Man belongs to the World; civilized people believe that the World belongs to Man.

If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the will to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual - "Ishmael

The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the world'.

The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison.

Don't try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable.

There is no one right way to live.

[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.

Don't wait. Where do you expect to get by waiting? Doing is what teaches you. Doing is what leads to inspiration. Doing is what generates ideas. Nothing else, and nothing less.

No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species.

Writing is an abstract art of drawing pictures of the conscious and subconscious mind with words.

I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

In the long run, everything is a toaster.

I like it when poems are challenging, when they concern matters important and personal to the author.

If you were to write your life motto, what would it say? Look out for number one? Or look out for the needs of others?

Innocence is lucky if it finds the same protection as guilt

I've always spent a lot of time on my records with what I think were unique rhythmic approaches... but no one ever writes about your rhythm playing

I wish I could, instead of destroying things like that, I wish I could build, build, build.

No, I won't try to escape myself by losing myself in artificial chatter 'Did you have a nice vacation?' 'Oh, yes, and you?' I'll stay here and try to pin that loneliness down.

I knew Lee Harvey Oswald, and I knew Jack Kennedy. The odds against that-one person knowing all four of those men-must be astounding.