The moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home: to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own government, his own culture. The more freedom the writer possesses, the greater the moral obligation to play the role of critic.

Who needs astrology? The wise man gets by on fortune cookies.

I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings.

Our suicidal poets (Plath, Berryman, Lowell, Jarrell, et al.) spent too much of their lives inside rooms and classrooms when they should have been trudging up mountains, slogging through swamps, rowing down rivers. The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial.

All power rests on hierarchy: An army is nothing but a well-organized lynch mob.

My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.

Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)