I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.

If you want to see the consequences of ideas, write a story. If you want to see the consequences of belief, write a story in which somebody is acting on the ideas or beliefs that she has.

You are a real find and you keep me satisfied, up to a point. After all, I'm a malcontent and you can't change that.

Savor the imminent weirdness of the day.

Literature is not a sack race. There aren't real winners and losers in the Republic of Letters.

What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you--if you happen to be me--with homecoming queens first, then girls next door, and finally anybody who might be pleased to see you now and then at the dinner table and in bed on occasion. You look up from reading the newspaper and realize that no one loves you, and no one burns for you.

The truth is that I'm never sure how any of my books will be received, and because I can be thin-skinned, I try not to read too many reviews when a book first comes out.