in Los Angeles ... was the thinking-est crowd on earth: how to get ahead, how to mold a better body, how to have a better relationship, how to score, earn, fight, win, get published, be a star.

I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker.

Breakfast was only worth having when somebody else made it for you.

People think they own time. They have watches and clocks and digital pulses. But they are wrong. Time owns them.

People nearly always believe, and are willing to back it up with weapons and cruelty, that their religion and way of life is better than the other person's

I approach serious subjects, and I like to have the good guys win and have the parents among the good guys

If you write a story based on a real person, you're trapped by the details of the real person and his life. It gets in the way of writing your own story.

I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.

My favorite book is always the one I'm working on at the moment

I wrote eight full-length adult novels in my twenties. None of them were published

Actually my first eight books were historical novels, but they were never published

Do not envy the rich

In a society run by terror, no statements whatsoever can be taken seriously. They are all forced, and it is the duty of every honest man to ignore them.

There are certain people that are marked for death. I have my little list of those that treated me unfairly.

William Blake cursed the flesh for a clod, Yet of some of his sayings we Moderns have heard tell: 'The nakedness of woman is the work of God', Or that title--The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Joy is a flame which association alone can keep alive, and which goes out unless communicated.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

My first girlfriend, when I was about 18, was a fashion designer, and my sister was a fashion designer as well. I've always been into shopping, and I've always been very aesthetic, in a sense.

I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.

O soul, be patient: thou shalt find A little matter mend all this; Some strain of music to thy mind, Some praise for skill not spent amiss.

He (Roberto Clemente) is a hero to me.