I believe I belong to the last literary generation, the last generation, that is, for whom books are a religion.

Genius is a strong aphrodisiac.

I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark.

I prefer to work in the morning. I get up now at five in the morning. In the morning is when I feel freshest.

You reach a point in life where you realize that you might as well do what you need to do, because your being loved or not being loved is really a function of the people you encounter and not of yourself. That is an immensely liberating insight.

Women tend to be preservers of the social structure, of marriage. They don't want to upset their husbands or their significant others. They don't want to hurt people.

The most important thing for a writer is to be locked in a study.