The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

When all else fails, philosophize.

We must cultivate, all of us, a certain ignorance, a certain blindness, or society will not be tolerable.

I know somewhat too much; and from this knowledge, once one has been infected, there seems to be no recovering.

All creatures come into the world bringing with them the memory of justice.

But he cannot see a connection between the end of yearning and the end of poetry. Is that what growing up amounts to: growing out of yearning, of passion, of all intensities of the soul?

I don't think we are ready to die, any of us, not without being escorted.

A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?

A book is a suicide postponed.

Stay present for the “now” of your life. It’s your “point of power.

Argot is both a literary and a social phenomenon. What is argot, properly speaking? Argot is the language of misery.

Fortune favours the bold.

I took a bunch of pictures. You can see 'em on my MySpace page, along with my favorite songs and movies and things that other people have created but that I use to express my individualism.

There is a sign that hangs on my wall that says, 'What is it you want me to do to somebody else that is more important than what you want me to do for you?

By 1782 [John Adams] had come to feel for [Benjamin] Franklin "no other sentiments than Contempt or Abhorrence."

But I can only write what the muse allows me to write. I cannot choose, I can only do what I am given, and I feel pleased when I feel close to concrete poetry - still.

I fail to see what dangers surrounding states can see in the ideas of the Soviet people if these states are really firmly seated in their saddles.

Obviously we will talk about doing everything we can to make our sport as safe as possible.