A writer of books has to admit that film is the enemy, and that in my case I have been sleeping with the enemy.

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing - none of that is writing. Writing is writing. Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.

All over the world today, not just in the totalitarian countries, assiduous functionaries in Ministries of Truth are clubbing history dumb and rendering language insensible.

I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.

It was evident to him that the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction.