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

I hated being a novelist when I was 20 - I had nothing to write about.

She was a logical child, as far as children go. She did not understand how such a nice, kind, good God as the one they preyed to, could condemn the whole earth for sinfulness and flood it, or condemn his only Son to a disgusting death on behalf of everyone. This death did not seem to have done much good.

Art does not exist for politics, or for instruction- it exists primarily for pleasure, or it is nothing.

Only write to me, write to me, I love to see the hop and skip and sudden starts of your ink.

Harm can come about without will or action. But will and action can avert harm.

Coherence and closure are deep human desires that are presently unfashionable. But they are always both frightening and enchantingly desirable. "Falling in love," characteristically, combs the appearances of the word, and of the particular lover's history, out of a random tangle and into a coherent plot.