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

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

Unlike lions and dogs, we are a dissenting animal. We need to dissent in the same way that we need to travel, to make money, to keep a record of our time on earth and in dream, and to leave a permanent mark. Dissension is a drive, like those drives.

For a short-story writer, a story is the combination of what the writer supposed the story would likely be about - plus what actually turned up in the course of writing.

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

The secret of literature, which conventional people don't guess, is that writers are forever looking for the surprising revelation - not for reinforcement of collective wisdom.

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