An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.

I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.

I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.

I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.

People never believe you.

They didn't act like people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good.

I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.

I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

How long should a man's legs be? Long enough to touch the ground.

Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.

How do you know you're going to do something, untill you do it?

People never notice anything.

I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.

If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody.

Mothers are all slightly insane.

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.

It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it.

I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

Some stories, my property, have been stolen. Someone's appropriated them. It's an illicit act. It's unfair. Suppose you had a coat you liked, and somebody went into your closet and stole it. That's how I feel.

There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It's peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy.

An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

I've survived a lot of things, and I'll probably survive this.

A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you been drinkin jack and coke all morning. she can make you feel high, for the single greatest comodity known to man - promise.

Even a little self control can save you a lot of timeIts really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I'm inspired by nature. Other artist's work is important for developing my perception.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.

You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what's happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

I've always felt that if one was going to take seriously this vocation as an artist, you have to get beyond that decorative facade.

Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.