There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is the quality of having to stare, of not getting the point at once. The longer you look at one object, the more of the world you see in it; and it's well to remember that the serious fiction writer always writes about the whole world.

Writing is a good example of self-abandonment. I never completely forget myself except when I am writing and I am never more completely myself than when I am writing.

I spend three hours a day writing and the rest of my day getting over it.

She felt that she would have to be much more than just a doctor or an engineer. She would have to be a saint.

In my travels I am often asked if college stifles young writers. In my opinion, it doesn't stifle them enough.

We are now living in an age which doubts both fact and value. It is the life of this age that we wish to see and judge.

There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the presence of a gift. It is the nature of fiction not to be good for much unless it is good in itself.