We are most alive when we're in love..

Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more..

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit..

Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered..

I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards..

Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience..

The world ... is full of people who never knew what hit 'em, their lives are over before they wake up..

The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding..

Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went..

All dancing is now is standing in place and letting the devil of the music enter you..

I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head..

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience..

Living is a compromise, between doing what you want and doing what other people want..

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them..

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else..

Sex is like money; only too much is enough..

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better..

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self- solitude is the enemy of well- being..

It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you..

If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price..

Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner..