Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

…I go through a story for lies. I might discover the lie of trying to show off. Sometimes they’re lies of character. Sometimes they are lies of writing the most beautiful sentence in the world that has nothing to do with the story.

I've started many novels, and they all ended on page seven.

I lived in a house in the East Bronx, a totally Jewish neighborhood on East 172nd Street. You didn't see Christians much, although one lived next door. We thought they were kind of a minority.

Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.

I liked the education. I liked people learning things all around me and I liked going to people's classes.

Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world.