it was dawning on me how uphill a poet's path was, and I confessed to her that if I had to be the choice between being happy or being a poet, I'd choose to be happy.

She asked Billy Pilgrim what he was supposed to be, Billy said he didn't know.

She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrased and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all.

What doesn't kill us gives us something new to write about.

...a writer without authority? Impossible. as Kenneth Burke says, creation implies authority in the sense of originator....

...people quote proverbs without realizing they're really in awe of the authority of their truth and the power of their expression...