But romantic vision can also lead one away from certain very hard, ugly truths about life that are important to know.

Criticism at the wrong time, even if it's legitimate criticism, can be seriously damaging and make the writer lose faith in what he's doing. It's the timing that's all-important.

I'd always rather stand or fall on my own mistakes. There's nothing worse than looking back, in a published book, at a line edit or a copy edit that you felt queasy about and didn't want to take, but took anyway.

After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great

Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.

I believe, in a funny way, the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for.

Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.