What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering.

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

If the stories come, you get them written, you're on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.

You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.

There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them.

Overnight business could go down enough to hurt; yet as a rule it slowly recovered-sometimes it seemed to take forever-went up, not high enough to be really up, only not down.

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go - if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.