Sometimes I don't know whether I'm real or whether I'm a character in one of my novels.

I learned a little of beauty - enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth - and I found, moreover, that there was no great literary tradition; there was only the tradition of the eventful death of every literary tradition.

but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game

Art isn't meaningless... It is in itself. It isn't in that it tries to make life less so.

In short, you have only your emotions to sell. This is the experience of all writers.

You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.

This is the beauty I want. Beauty has got to be astonishing, astounding-- it's got to burst in on you like a dream, like the exquisite eyes of a girl.