"I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life."
"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."
"She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."
"There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."
"The function of freedom is to free someone else."
"Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet."