You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.

Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part.

I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil. I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow.

Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.

Even a child with normal feet was in love with the world after he had got a new pair of shoes.

The only way, I think, to learn to write short stories is to write them, and then try to discover what you have done.

I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it.