I don't have a college degree.
— Nick Tosches
For years, I never really pondered how I came to be a writer from where I came from.
To me, music's something I can dance to or listen to. To write about it is always more of what the music represents, or what it reflects. Like an ideal song, to me, is a song that you can dance to, that summons up some darker and greater mystery.
I often wonder if I had the complete freedom to not have to write, if I would write. That's the one mystery that I hope I get to experience.
When I was young, I kept trying to read 'Moby-Dick', and I couldn't get that far into it. And I kept thinking, 'Well, man, if I can't read the great American novel, I could never be a writer.' And this bothered me a great deal.
The things I wanted to be when I was a kid were an archeologist, because of dinosaur bones; a garbage man, because they got to ride on the side of the trucks; and a writer.
As a young man, I felt a need to communicate with somebody or something, but it seemed in my own particular environment that that wasn't an option. On the other hand, I probably lacked the courage to do so, even if it was an option.
Mortality applies to every aspect of life. The fear of death is the driving fear of life.
Life is a racket. Writing is a racket. Sincerity is a racket. Everything's a racket.
