I Don't Want To Lose Hope.

I Am Not A Religious Person, Nor Do I Have Any Regrets. The War Took Care Of That For Me. You Know, I Was Brought Up Strictly Kosher, But I - It Made No Sense To Me. It Made No Sense To Me What Was Happening. So Nothing Of It Means Anything To Me. Nothing. Except These Few Little Trivial Things That Are Related To Being Jewish. ... You Know Who My Gods Are, Who I Believe In Fervently? Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson - She's Probably The Top - Mozart, Shakespeare, Keats. These Are Wonderful Gods Who Have Gotten Me Through The Narrow Straits Of Life.

All I Liked To Do When I Was A Kid Was Draw. My Childhood Was Like My Adult Life: Drawing Pictures With My Brother, Putting The Comics Up On The Glass Window, And Tracing The Characters Onto Tracing Paper Or Drawing Paper And Then Coloring Them. That And Making Things Was All We Ever Did.

I Had Been Reading A Fabulous Book [the Man Verdi, By Frank Walker] About [giuseppe] Verdi, Whom I Adore.

Thank God That Bumble-ardy's Parents Are Dead So We Don't Have To Wonder What They Did To Him. We Only Know That They Were Famous, And Famous People Have Unhappy Children For The Most Part. They Don't Have The Time To Take Care Of Them. So He's A Troubled Pig-boy, A Kid You've Got To Watch.

I'm Totally Crazy, I Know That. I Don't Say That To Be A Smartass, But I Know That That's The Very Essence Of What Makes My Work Good. And I Know My Work Is Good. Not Everybody Likes It, That's Fine. I Don't Do It For Everybody. Or Anybody. I Do It Because I Can't Not Do It.