It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.

Solitary and farouche people don't have relationships; they are quite unrelatable.

Short of a small range of physical acts-a fight, murder, lovemaking-dialogue is the most vigorous and visible inter-action of which characters in a novel are capable. Speech is what characters do to each other.

Childish fantasy, like the sheath over the bud, not only protects but curbs the terrible budding spirit, protects not only innocence from the world, but the world from the power of innocence.

When you love someone all your saved up wishes start coming out.

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.

Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.