When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should 'teach writing,' which I have no idea how to do and don't really believe in.

Words bounce. Words, if you let them, will do what they want to do and what they have to do.

One of the principle qualities of pain is that it demands an explanation.

To be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful, a suspended moment of living hope.

The words we read and words we write never say exactly what we mean. The people we love are never just as we desire them. The two symbola never perfectly match. Eros is in between.

You remember too much," my mother said to me recently. "Why hold onto all that?" And I said, "where can I put it down?

Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.

Myths are stories about people who become too big for their lives temporarily, so that they crash into other lives or brush against gods. In crisis their souls are visible.

Under the seams runs the pain.

When I desire you a part of me is gone.

If your way of life is writing, then everything that happens becomes a sentence.

The world’s greatest classroom has no walls: nature.

Talk to me. Say something, anything, " he pleaded quietly as if he was trying to tame a wild animal."There's nothing to say."He looked up and lowered his eyebrows on his eyes. "Why did you kiss me?

I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil.

Power tends to connect absolute power connects absolutely.

Justice is the essence of peace

A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government.

Language is the only chimera whose illusory power is endless, the inexhaustibility which keeps life from being impoverished. Let men learn to serve language.

And the most important thing you can do is learn to edit yourself. And then go back and rewrite.

I think I'll paint roads on my front room walls to convince myself that I'm going places

A good painter needs only three colours: black, white and red.