I don't understand why, in my work, writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers.

For my true thoughts have spent more time in your company than in anyone else's, these last two or three months, and where my thoughts are, there am I, in truth".

I am a profound pessimist both about life and about human relations and about politics and ecology. Humans are inadequate and stupid creatures who sooner or later make a mess, and those who are trying to do good do a lot more damage than those who are muddling along.

Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it.

Human beings love stories because they safely show us beginnings, middles and ends.

Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.

…words have been all my life, all my life--this need is like the Spider's need who carries before her a huge Burden of Silk which she must spin out--the silk is her life, her home, her safety--her food and drink too--and if it is attacked or pulled down, why, what can she do but make more, spin afresh, design anew….