The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what is written.

Almost everyone admits to hunger during the Opera.... Hunger is so exalting that during a last act you practically levitate.

If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.

What must novel dialogue . . . really be and do? It must be pointed, intentional, relevant. It must crystallize situation. It must express character. It must advance plot. During dialogue, the characters confront one another. The confrontation is in itself an occasion. Each one of these occasions, throughout the novel, is unique.

Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.

Nobody can be kinder than the narcissist while you react to life in his own terms.

A Bowen, in the first place, made Bowen's Court. Since then, with a rather alarming sureness, Bowen's Court has made all the succeeding Bowens.