Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat.

More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle.

My writing is done in railroad yards while waiting for a freight, in the fields while waiting for a truck, and at noon after lunch. Towns are too distracting.

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas .

The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas.