You have to be lonely to be a writer

Kindness. The most unkind thing of all.

After that dark woman you search for someone who will fit into the irregular corners of your heart.

History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

Sometimes one word can recall a whole span of life.

Ideally I'd like to spend two evenings a week talking to Proust and another conversing with the Holy Ghost.

You have to be lonely to be a writer