If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made public, it is a waste.

I think most serious writers, certainly in the modern period, use their own lives or the lives of people close to them or lives they have heard about as the raw material for their creativity.

I do not have many things that are meaningful to me. Except my doubts and my fears. And my art.

Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown

If I had a plot that was all set in advance, why would I want go through the agony of writing the novel? A novel is a kind of exploration and discovery, for me at any rate.

Each work seems to give me the most trouble at the time I'm working on it.

As a species we are always hungry for new knowledge.