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

One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing. I did that with 'World's Fair' as with all of them. The inventions of the book come as discoveries.

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.

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

Longing, the hope for fulfillment, is the one unwavering passion of the world's commerce.

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.

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