“The quest of the alchemists to turn lead into gold is a metaphor for our attempts to turn the base metal of ourselves, that person hooked on consumerism, filled with angst and ambition, into the go...”

“One passion leads to another. It's passion that makes the wheels of life turn, passion for work, passion for pleasure, passion for passion.”

“If you add the shadow of death to a moment of passion you are in that instant free of all normal ties, your mind grows still and your body enters a state of non-being.”

“If you are open to change and welcome surprise, you know the secret of creativity and the secret of life.”

“You don't become a success by breaking the rules. You don't become a success by obeying the rules. You become a success by inventing the rules.”

“There was a monster in me that had to be fed by success. There is a monster in us all that has to be fed by something.”

“Sex can be used either for self-affirmation or for self-transcendence either to intensify the ego and consolidate the social persona by some kind of conspicuous embarkation and heroic conquest, or...”

“He didn't know all that much about how the machinery worked anyway. Such knowledge was for specialists. In war, as in love, he was a fearless, happy-go-lucky adventurer.”

“If she did experience sex--or something close to it--in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.”