Rejection helps because it makes you write better; acceptance helps because it keeps you writing.

Most drunks I've known aren't very interesting at all. Of course most sober people aren't either.

I don't know, you know. Take some poets. Some start very well. There is a flash, a burning, a gamble in their way of putting it down. A good first or second book, then they seem to dissolve. You look around and they are teaching CREATIVE WRITING at some university. Now they think they know how to WRITE and they are going to tell others how to. This is a sickness: they have accepted themselves. It's unbelievable that they can do this. It's like some guy coming along and trying to tell me how to fuck because he thinks he fucks good.

Well, I'm 34 now. If I don't make it by the time I'm 60, I'm just going to give myself 10 more years.

It appears to me that some members of The Women’s Lib. are attempting to impose a censorship upon freedom of expression, a censorship which exceeds even the ambitions of some city, country, state and govt. groups out to practice the same ends and methods. A man can write a story about fucking or even lousy women without being a woman-hater. The sisters must realize that limitations on certain forms of writing will eventually lead to control and limitation of all forms of writing except that chosen by some sanctioned body. A writer must be able allowed to touch upon everything.