The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

An essay is a work of literary art which has a minimum of one anecdote and one universal idea.

It is very difficult to teach navigation theory to someone who clings to the shore.

Literature has low enough standards. But we can avoid writing the worst literature if we make ourselves ask ourselves, every two or three sentences we write, 'Is that what I really think?'

No one is shallow and vulgar forever; sooner or later the whole species likes to be profound.

The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

I don't engage in self-censorship. But I do change everybody to have red hair in the last draft. ... If you give people red hair when in real life they haven't got red hair, I've noticed they don't recognize themselves, anyway.