We're persecuted in the most civilized languages.

You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter.

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.

I write a book at least three times-once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say.

We have two lives, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward happiness.

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Writers who can't invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn't paint people, so he painted chairs.