Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.

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

If you don't hunt it down and kill it, it will hunt you down and kill you.

You get a real person down there and his talking will take care of itself.

A gift of any kind is a considerable responsibility. It is a mystery in itself, something gratuitous and wholly undeserved, something whose real uses will probably always be hidden from us.

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.

It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes.