A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell them to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning.

A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.

I don’t want any of this artificial superficial feeling stimulated by the choir. Today I have proved myself a glutton—​for Scotch oatmeal cookies and erotic thought. There is nothing left to say of me.

I do not like the raw sound of the human voice in unison unless it is under the discipline of music.

I know well enough that very few people who are supposedly interested in writing are interested in writing well. They are interested in publishing something, and if possible in making a "killing." They are interested in being a writer not in writing. . . If this is what you are interested in, I am not going to be much use to you.

I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.

It began to drizzle rain and he turned on the windshield wipers; they made a great clatter like two idiots clapping in church.