I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.
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In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.
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It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
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Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society.
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Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.
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The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.
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There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative.
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We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.
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Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.
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Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
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Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
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