Jerry Stahl

“We can't live together," I remember screeching. "We're married. It's too corny!”

— Jerry Stahl

“It's not like I ever wanted to wake up and just be a grossly overpaid, self-loathing, can't-look-in-the-mirror-without-gagging TV writer.”

— Jerry Stahl

Half the reason I turned into a writer is you didn't have to show up anywhere. You could work naked.

— Jerry Stahl

“Maybe the reason you can never go home again is that, once you're back, you can never leave... ”

— Jerry Stahl

“Mom lived in 709. Five doors down from 714, the number they stamped on Quaaludes.”

— Jerry Stahl

“Did you ever meet someone who either had no sense of humor or was never serious, you couldn't tell which?”

— Jerry Stahl

The art and act of writing - speaking just for myself - involves getting your proverbial ass in the proverbial chair.

— Jerry Stahl

“There were mornings I thought drugs made me insane and mornings I thought they kept me from going that way.”

— Jerry Stahl

“Society has always said: Make money. Artists have said: But there's something else. Cliché City. But in Hollwood there's the Big Lie…

— Jerry Stahl

“The point is, everything, bad or good, boils back to the decade on the needle, and the years before that imbibing everything…

— Jerry Stahl

You may think you don't want to throw your life away for mere fleeting euphoria. But, once you get a taste, it…

— Jerry Stahl

Life can be lived as a temporary arrangement. Life is a temporary arrangement! But the longer you go without changing, the more…

— Jerry Stahl

I used to say, for me, writing was like walking a high wire, and heroin made me forget there was no net.…

— Jerry Stahl

“Her skin felt smooth and firm. Her hair smelled faintly of motor oil. Her mouth tasted like coffee. She was absolutely real,…

— Jerry Stahl

I think that a lot of people are in love with stress. It's the dirty little secret of Western civilization. People often…

— Jerry Stahl

“...it's not what people do, it's what they don't tell you they do. That's what hurts. That's what you think about when…

— Jerry Stahl

“There's two kinds of people, kid: the kind who pretend they are, and the kind who pretend they aren't. Take my advice…

— Jerry Stahl

“Destroy your life; then put it back together.You'll get great material, meet some fascinating characters and – side benefit – the skills…

— Jerry Stahl

If you're here for four more years or four more weeks, you're here right now. I think when you're somewhere, you ought…

— Jerry Stahl

“Sometimes, it's like you know what people think: You know what they're thinking, and you know it's wrong. All you want to…

— Jerry Stahl

“He hadn't expected anyone so pretty, and it threw him. Tina had the Faye Dunaway thing. Faye before the surgery, when her…

— Jerry Stahl

“This was, I sometimes thought, the last gift my father gave me. And the best: His death stood out as the supreme-o…

— Jerry Stahl

“As far as I could tell, life was nothing but a forced march down a mined highway. Even if you did everything…

— Jerry Stahl

“I have to admit, I wasn't close to my old man when he was alive. He was hardly ever home. But now…

— Jerry Stahl

“In some odd gush of patriotism, my mother had once vomited on the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, and a bust…

— Jerry Stahl

“The thing is, all my heroes were junkies. Lenny Bruce, Keith Richards, William Burroughs, Miles Davis, Hubert Selby, Jr... These guys were…

— Jerry Stahl

The second time I took acid, I watched myself in the mirror for nine hours. What I realized, when I stared, was…

— Jerry Stahl

“It's different to miss somebody when they're still alive. When they die it's like, 'Okay, I'm sad.' You're supposed to be sad.…

— Jerry Stahl

I didn't really start publishing books until I was 40 because I was busy being a McDonald's employee. So there's always a…

— Jerry Stahl

“This is Hollywood's dirty little secret. It's not about making movies. Are you kidding? Forget that shit about "the Dream Factory." It's…

— Jerry Stahl