'I don't have fun. Actually, I had fun once. In 1962. I drank a whole bottle of Robitussin cough medicine and went in the back of a 1961 powder-blue Lincoln Continental to a James Brown concert with some Mexican friends of mine. I haven't had fun since. It's not a word I like. It's like Volkswagens or bell-bottoms, or patchouli oil or bean sprouts. It rubs me up the wrong way. I might go out and have an educational and entertaining evening, but I don't have fun.'

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

'I like to walk out of a diner with enough gas to open a Mobil station.'

My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. 'Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?' they asked me the other day.…

I remember, I remember How my childhood fleeted by,- The mirth of its December And the warmth of its July.

Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy.

There's a hope for every woe, And a balm for every pain, But the first joys of our heart Come never back again!