Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars.

A novel is a printed circuit through which flows the force of a reader's own life.

Dad is always hiding in his book.

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.

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.

Time seems to me a drift, a shifting of sand. And my mind is shifting with it. I am wearing away.

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.