This diagnosis can be done in about two lines. It doesn't engage anybody.

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.

I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?

This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

I knew I was alone in a way that no earthling has ever been before.

But, Scarlett, did it ever occur to you that even the most deathless love could wear out?

Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.

Music is a whole oasis in my head. The creation process is so personal and fulfilling.

Family is the only real wealth.

Most people aren't happy about being consistent and staying at the same place for years. People want forward progress and motion.

Don't you try and go through life worried if someone had liked you or not. You best make sure that they are doing right by you.

No sober person dances.

The American drummer is a one-man percussion orchestra.

He (the Shaman) is a self-reliant explorer of the endless mansions of a magnificent hidden universe.