No one lusting for blood is ever innocent. Or satisfied. I have not be — Joseph Heller

"Let someone else get killed!" "Suppose everyone on our side felt that way?" "Well then Id certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldnt I?"

"In my middle years, I have exchanged the position of the fetus for the position of a corpse."

"The promises of maniacs, like those of women, are not safely relied upon."

"Women my wifes age with broken marriages take up robustly with fellows much younger than themselves, sometimes boys, and their husbands dont like that part of it at all. (Its a means they have of really sticking it to us. The husbands can do without the money and kids. But they cant abide their wives humping a younger dick and letting everyone know.)"

"Vanity. Whats wrong with vanity? It doesnt satisfy."

"The years are too short, the days are too long."

"Our concern with environment cannot be reduced to what can be used, to what can be grasped. Environment includes not only the inkstand and the blotting paper, but also the impenetrable stillness in the air, the stars, the clouds, the quiet passing of time, the wonder of my own being. I am an end as well as a means, and so is the world: an end as well as a means. My view of the world and my understanding of the self determine each other. The complete manipulation of the world results in the complete instrumentalization of the self."

"[Relationships] never seem to work out, I mean it gets to the point where I have to be extremely cautious. You have to understand, this stardom thing is still new to me, I dont even consider myself "famous". Its 2008: if you have a blog, a mixtape and two pairs of skinny jeans you, too, can be famous."

"Critics of the war plans (including myself) have pointed to the disastrous political results that must be expected: Iraq would break into three parts (Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center, Shi’ites in the south), the Middle East would be exposed to the onslaught of Iranian fanaticism, pro-Western Arab regimes would collapse. Israel would be surrounded by aggressive Islamic fundamentalism, like the Crusader kingdom with the advent of Saladin."

"There can be no self-government without self-discipline. There can be no self-government without self-control. There can be no liberty unless it is grounded in moral discipline and the ability to do what is right."

"Whenever the press quits abusing me I know Im in the wrong pew. I dont mind it because when they throw bricks at me—Im a pretty good shot myself and I usually throw em back at em."

"Josef Alberss [a former art teacher of Rauschenberg, on Black Mountain College ] rule is to make order. As for me, I consider myself successful when I do something that resembles the lack of order I sense. (around 1949 during Black Mountain College, fh)."