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

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.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

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.

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.

In novels, I said, people are transfigured by love. They’re elevated, made different, lifted out of their ordinariness…It’s not so much to ask, I said. I just want love to live up to its publicity.

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