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.

At its best, fiction is not a diversion but a means of knowing the world.

You know, there's something heartsick about parties like this. Look at us. We're all pretending to be smart, as if intelligence were the cure for our anguish.

It's better to be nominated for awards than not to be nominated for them, but of course to some degree such awards [National Book Award] are always subjective.

Forget art. Put your trust in ice cream.

The worst mistakes I've made have been the ones directed by sweet-natured hopefulness.

Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.