“One reason why I have stressed so much the immoral, the wicked, the ugly, the cruel in my work is because I wanted others to know how valuable these are, how equally if not more important than the good things … I was getting the poison out of my system. Curiously enough, this poison had a tonic effect for others. It was as if I had
given them some type of immunity.”

(Excerpted from the Rolling Stone article, “Reflections of a Cosmic Tourist“)