Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

Uncharged with invisible meaning, the visible is nothing, mere clay; and without visible circumstance, a territory, to connect to, our spirit is shapeless, nameless, and undefined.

Children have a lot more to worry about from the parents who raised them than from the books they read.

A book begins as a private excitement of the mind.

I thought of myself as a writer for years before I got around to writing anything.

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.

I've always felt, as a writer, that radicals are fascinating because they're relations, they have a place in the American family. They're the relatives everyone wishes would go away. They're the embarrassments to decorum and good taste.