There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.

It's not your imperfections that make you attractive, it's your honesty about them that does.

Society my dear is like salt water good to swim in but hard to swallow.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

Keep dreaming, wishing and planning. There's immeasurable power in it.

Why worry one's head over a thing that is inevitable? Why die before one's death?

Wooing the press is an exercise roughly akin to picnicking with a tiger. You might enjoy the meal, but the tiger always eats last.

Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway.

When my money starts coming in and I'm blessed to see an eye doctor every week, twice a week, I'm going to do it.

A great actor is simply just seeing him or herself, and reacting to what exists around them.

In 1980, I moved to Chicago, and I recorded demo tapes for my friends' bands, and in 1981, the first Big Black record - the first thing I did that was an actual record.