Author

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

When I say that basically writing is a hard hustle, I don't mean that it is a bad life, if one can get away with it. It's the miracle of miracles to make a living by the typer.

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.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

It's when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.

Itulah arti persahabatan. Berbagi prasangka pengalaman.

Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, I must have read a whole library.

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?

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can't vent any anger against them; I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence.

My love is a hummingbird sitting that quiet moment on the bough, as the same cat crouches.

A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won't let go.

I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don't like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don't like to be shaped by society.

I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter.

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

Shakespeare didn't work at all for me.

Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you'll feel better because they know that everything is just as it is. There's nothing to get excited about. They just know. They're saviours.

Orang tanpa moral sering menganggap diri mereka lebih bebas, tapi kebanyakan mereka tidak memiliki kemampuan untuk merasakan kebencian atau cinta.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.