When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.

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

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

And so the ordinary unendurable torments we all experienced were indeed exceptional in the way they were absorbed in each heart.