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

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave.

A bookcase is as good as a view, as much of a panorama as the sight of a city or a river. There are dawns and sunsets in books - storms and zephyrs.

The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them.

I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock.

Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want.

People ... have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work.