In cities no one notices specific dying. Dying is a quality of the air. It's everywhere and nowhere.

My attitudes aren't directed toward characters at all. I don't feel sympathetic toward some characters, unsympathetic toward others. I don't love some characters, feel contempt for others. They have attitudes; I don't.

A Catholic is raised with the idea that he will die any minute now and if he doesn't live his life in a certain way, this death is an introduction to an eternity of pain.

The modern meaning of life's end-when does it end? How does it end? How should it end? What is the value of life? How do we measure it?

I've never made an outline for any novel that I've written. Never.

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us.

I didn’t do anything. I don’t have an explanation, I don’t know why I wanted to write. I did some short stories at that time, but very infrequently. I quit my job just to quit. I didn’t quit my job to write fiction. I just didn’t want to work anymore