I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.

No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.

There can be no great literature in America until her writers have learned to trust her implicitly and love her devoutly.

Why must all of the operations in life be performed without an anesthetic?

Do you know how an ugly woman feels? Do you know what it is to be ugly all your life and inside to feel that you are beautiful? It is very rare.

There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.

My writing is nothing, my boxing is everything.