Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.

Capitalism arose and took off its pajamas. Another day, another dollar. Each man is valued at what he will bring in the marketplace. Meaning has been drained from work and assigned instead to remuneration.

Succeed! It has been done, and with a stupidity that can astound the most experienced.

There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.

And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love.

Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught—prayer, fasting and self-mutilation.

The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.