It is never easier to understand the mind of a bomb-wielding anarchist than when standing amid a crush of those ladies and gentlemen who have the money and temerity to style themselves “New York Society.
Every human being must find his own way to cope with severe loss, and the only job of a true friend is to facilitate whatever method he chooses.
It is the greatest truth of our age: Information is not knowledge.
I wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer when I was a kid. If you had told me I would be an artist or novelist when I grew up, I would have laughed in your face.
People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause them anxiety.
So if it seems that some of what I’ll have to say in the pages to come doesn’t reflect the mellowing of age, that’s only because I’ve never found that life and memories respond to time the way that tobacco does.
I’m a fairly ascetic person. And I do most of my writing at night. You don’t get distracted, your brain goes into what you are writing about, into the world you’re writing about, rather than into the world you’re in.
I, like most of my friends, couldn’t believe I bought a mountain called Misery Mountain, because it was so appropriate.