There was a saying in our family that no one ever died; people just dried up, were hung on a hook, and conducted their affairs from there.

How could a person have and do all these stupid things--clip coupons and double lock the front door--and then one day just cease to exist?

A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.

I moved my hand in and out of the shadow and pondered life and death. Then I put on my lipstick, pulled up my pants, and got back to work.

People who die in Detroit and then go to hell probably think they’re in heaven. I know, because I’ve been to Cleveland.


You must know that I am made of death, from head to foot, and it is a corpse who loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you!

I saw the corpse, and I called the cops. But not before I called a 1-800 phone sex number with the dead guy’s phone and credit card.

I always say, if you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Death has this much to be said for it:You don't have to get out of bed for it.Wherever you happen to beThey bring it to you—free.

He loved me and I loved him, but the number in my head was telling me that he was going to die today. And the numbers had never been wrong.

Nico found a sort of freedom in knowing that eventually, no matter what happened, he would end up at the foot of his father’s throne.

to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.

When I think of Simone now, I think of butterfly wings. Beautiful and excruciatingly delicate. Touch them once and they might disintegrate.

I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die.

Some men want to go out with a bang. Personally, I'd rather not die from sex. I mean, what will my wife think when the police tell her?