If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to complain.

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

Everyone knows everything eventually.

Society was nothing but a long, dull dinner party conversation in which one was forced to speak to one's partner on both the left and the right.

I wanted to eat her pain, take it into me and make it my own.

If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world. Writing the ideas down, it turns out, is the real trick.

Updike and Bellow and Roth were my three favorite writers when I was young and throughout my life.