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

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.

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

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

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.

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.

Ruefulness is one of the classical tones of American fiction. It fosters a native, deglamorized form of anxiety.