... there is ... a big aspect of play in writing novels, and making the story more and more elaborate is just more and more fun.

There's nothing about interdependence that would keep somebody from making art.

A man was the sum of his limits; freedom only made him see how much so.

That there should be a purpose to suffering, that a person should be chosen for it, special - these are houses of the mind, in which whole peoples have found shelter.

For students who are in the most creative group in America to somehow be presumed to be narrow is just completely meshugga.

The independents are the ones who tend to commit suicide. I'm not against this way of being in the world. Individuals have brought us many treasures. You can't just say that's a bad way of being in the world - it's not. But it's not everyone's way of being in the world.

A white person was by definition somebody. Other people needed, across their hearts, one steel rib.