"It seems to me that if I am to sustain myself as a writer, I must be given the right to write as I see fit."

"I am not tragically colored."

"The very first principle of life is this: Never let anybody get your goat."

"I like myself when I am laughing. And then I think that is the best way to like yourself. To be laughing."

"I want to be a poet, and a novelist, and a playwright, and an anthropologist."