"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots."

"I know that the last thing a book wants is to just sit around unread, serving as an element of interior decorating. So when I have people over, all they have to do is glance at my books, and I implore them to take a few home with them. If I am really ambitious, I pack books into boxes and donate them to prisons."

"Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world."

"We who officially value freedom of speech above life itself seem to have nothing to talk about but the weather."

"Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions."

"It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading."

"That bedrock faith that I could write was what blinded me to attempts to discourage me."

"What was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there."