Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects.

I never reread a text until I have finished the first draft. Otherwise it's too discouraging.

The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn't be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed to force others to become Puritans; in the New World, of course, they could and did.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place

The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is the business of surprise. I never know what is coming next. The phrase that sounds in the head changes when it appears on the page. Then I start probing it with a pen, finding new meanings. Sometimes I burst out laughing at what is happening as I twist and turn sentences. Strange business, all in all. One never gets to the end of it. That’s why I go on, I suppose. To see what the next sentences I write will be.

Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age.

People have forgotten the effects of prohibition. We have become the United Statesof Amnesia.