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I am amazed at my own selfishness. When I bought the book I felt like a worm.

During the Great Depression John Steinbeck traveled through the Central Valley, recording observations of impoverished agrarian communities for the San Francisco Chronicle. In the midst of one such assignment, Steinbeck declines an invitation to the Jackson family home in San … Continued

In her will, she asked that her eyes (which had never failed her) be given to any blind person who through them might see…

We do not think enough about pain. Man is not innocent and he is not guilty. How to get out of that?

For no one to the present moment has so looked within me, if anyone has been interested in me enough to make the attempt, to discover why I have used prose as I have used it…

…at their hands I developed something the Freudians have not named—anti-angel aggression, call it. From 8 to 12 years it was my habit to seclude myself in a locked room every so often and with a fierce (and evil) face, whirl around in a circle with my fists knotted, socking the angel…

George Sand and Gustave Flaubert differed markedly in both personal disposition and belief. Sand, the ever-impetuous, considered ideas or archetypes in abstract forms. Flaubert recorded his observations, describing the icy Seine in midwinter, or complaining of the mutual futility and … Continued

First the worst: your five dollar check bounced. N’import. I made it good…

New Year’s I was broke so someone drove me to Montmartre Pig Alley Pigalle & I wandered around all night & walked at midnite thru Paris past all the whore streets & carousing areas of bar & walked back to Left Bank under the noisy stars.

Too often I feel like one crossing an abyss on a narrow plank—a glance might quite unnerve…