Young writers shouldn't be afraid of striving to emulate their favorites. It's a good way to learn, as long as you move on from it and don't publish too many of the results.

New Orleans cuisine is Creole rather than Cajun.

In the Netherlands I read the first chapter of Exquisite Corpse to an audience that laughed in all the places I thought were funny - an experience I've never had in America!

The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.

You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.

You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

I can't heal your pain but I can see it. And you don't have to be lost. Not forever.

Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.

Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

My childhood may have been more demented than most, because I learned to read very early and was allowed to read whatever I wanted.

At every age we play the same game, just by different rules.

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

The language denotes the man. A coarse or refined character finds its expression naturally in a coarse or refined phraseology.

As long as my sixth graders showed an average improvement of five years, the principal and district pretty much left me alone to create my own curriculum and teach whatever I wanted

I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot.

Are you slow-witted? I'm so sorry for you. It's terrible to be dull and stupid.

Far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system.

The more sleep you get in before the clock turns midnight, the more rested you feel no matter what time your alarm goes off.

Life should be fun not dumb

Unless you have a definite, precise, clearly set goals, you are not going to realize the maximum potential that lies within you.