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.

Thank God Roxane Coss had not fallen in love with one of the Russians. She doubted they could make it up the stairs without stopping for a cigarette and telling at least one loud story that no one could understand.

I was always on time, I did my work to exact specifications, I spoke when spoken to.

But these last months had turned him around and now Gen saw there could be as much virtue in letting go of what you knew as there had ever been in gathering new information. He worked as hard at forgetting as he had ever worked to learn.

I'm very comfortable writing.

I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.

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