To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.

Two people making love, she once said, are like one drowned person resuscitating the other.

Paranoids are the only ones who notice things anymore.

The first divorce in the world may have been a tragedy, but the hundred-millionth is not necessarily one.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.

To choose a writer for a friend is like palling around with your cardiologist, who might be musing as you talk to him that you are a sinking man. A writer's love for another writer is never quite free of malice. He may enjoy discussing your failures even more than you do. He probably sees you as tragic, like his characters - or unworthy of tragedy, which is worse.

Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.