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.

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

I have committed many sins in my life. This precise sin-the sin against poets-is without absolution.

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's life is so hazardous that anything he does is bad for him. Anything that happens to him is bad: failure's bad, success is bad; impoverishment is bad, money is very, very bad. Nothing good can happen... Except the act of writing.

The theory for admitting accomplice testimony that is uncorroborated is that conspiracy is by its nature secretive and that only the parties to it can know it occurred. But in practice this means the accomplice's guilt is modified to the degree that he can convict the defendant.