The act of composition is a series of discoveries.

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

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. Sometimes you run over a drunk who's lain down and fallen asleep on the warm pavement. I mean, do you keep going, or what?

I thought I would lose, so I didn't prepare a speech.

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.

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

Movies are too literal.