This$$$ after all$$$ was the month in which families began tightening and closing and sealing; from Thanksgiving to the New Year$$$ everybody's world contracted$$$ day by day$$$ into the microcosmic single festive household$$$ each with its own rituals and obsessions$$$ rules and dreams. You didn't feel you could call people. They didn't feel they could phone you. How does one cry for help from these seasonal prisons?

...the wicked lie$$$ that the past is always tense and the future$$$ perfect.

Later he would say that the Church led him to God$$$ and LSD led him to the universe. He also said that art led him to the devil$$$ and sex kept him with the devil.

I have loved books all my life. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book.

For a time Robert protected me$$$ then was dependent on me$$$ and then possessive of me. His transformation was the rose of Genet$$$ and he was pierced deeply by his blooming.

I'm off balance$$$ not sure what's wrong. You have misplaced joy$$$ he said without hesitation. Without joy$$$ we are as dead. How do I find it again? Find those who have it and bathe in their perfection.

In the war of magic and religion$$$ is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one$$$ but the priest$$$ learning humility in the face of God$$$ discarded the spell for prayer.

The Chelsea was like a doll's house in the Twilight Zone$$$ with a hundred rooms$$$ each a small universe.

For EARTH which is an intelligence hath a voice and a propensity to speak in all her parts.

A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.