Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.

...I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it again.

He and the girl had almost nothing to say to each other. One thing he did say was, 'I ain't got any tattoo on my back.' 'What you got on it?' the girl said. 'My shirt,' Parker said. 'Haw.' 'Haw, haw,' the girl said politely.

The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.

I never understand how writers can succumb to vanity - what you work the hardest on is usually the worst.

Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.

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.