Saul Bellow never took my advice when he was my friend.

There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola.

Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel.

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love.

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake.

Gertrude Stein really thought of Hemingway as frail. He almost married Stein.

The text is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.

Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate.

I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis.

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans.

To wake up every day with a whisper of a dream and then put pen to paper to make it a reality

God is the possessor of all earthly riches

Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.

If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.

I don't really write for an album. I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me. It's all a complete accident.

I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I'm trained!

The true traveler never arrives.

Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills.

Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.