We're all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing. Read Summary
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting. Read Summary
We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. Read Summary
If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence. Read Summary
Joan of Arc had style. Jesus had style. Read Summary
I do not like the human race. I don't like their heads, I don't like their faces, I don't like their feet, I don't like their conversations, I don't like their hairdos, I don't like their automobiles. Read Summary
Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way. Read Summary
I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there. Read Summary
Even though I write about the human race, the further away from them, the better I feel. Two miles is great; two thousand miles is beautiful. Read Summary
If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many 'bads' - bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even 'bad' white males. Only, when you write about 'bad' white males, they don't complain about it. And need I say that there are 'good' blacks, 'good' homosexuals and 'good' women? Read Summary
There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls, but these are the exact women who will turn the knife into you right in front of the crowd. Of course, I expect this, but the knife still cuts. Read Summary
The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth. Read Summary
To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself. Read Summary
My love is a hummingbird sitting that quiet moment on the bough, as the same cat crouches. Read Summary
When I worked on a magazine, I learned that there are many, many writers writing that can't write at all; and they keep on writing all the cliches and bromides and 1890 plots, and poems about Spring and poems about Love, and poems they think are modern because they are done in slang or staccato style, or written with all the 'i's' small. Read Summary
It's when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail. Read Summary
Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, 'Don't try.' That fits the writing, too. I don't try; I just type. Read Summary
I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter. Read Summary
The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them. Read Summary
Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live. Read Summary