I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him.

No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write.

You can only give things up once they start to let you down.

The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor.

Detachment is what interests me, seeing how people couldn't have been any other way, how they were the product of forces that they had no control over.

It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.