The only way [the book can be written] is to set the unbook-the gilt-framed portrait of the book-right there on the altar and sacrifice it, truly sacrifice it. Only then may the book, the real live flawed finite book, slowly, sentence by carnal sentence, appear.

The only way [the book can be written] is to set the unbook-the gilt-framed portrait of the book-right there on the altar and sacrifice it, truly sacrifice it. Only then may the book, the real live flawed finite book, slowly, sentence by carnal sentence, appear.

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing.

Envy is one of the scorpions of the mind, often having little to do with the objective, external world.

To gain the book, one must give up all hope for the book. It is the only way the book can get written.

Fiction must convince our bodies for it to have any chance of convincing our minds.