It's a terrible thing to die young. Still, it saves a lot of time.

I am very interested in people trying to write because I don't have a big academic background at all.

People say, "Why do you call your kids up, why do you worry like that?" And I say, "I was raised like that." My grandmother looked at my father with the same eyes when he was sixty and she was eighty-five.

Hindsight, usually looked down upon, is probably as valuable as foresight, since it does include a few facts.

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.

The only thing you should have to do is find work you love to do. And I can't imagine living without having loved a person. A man, in my case. It could be a woman, but whatever. I think, what I always tell kids when they get out of class and ask, 'What should I do now?' I always say, 'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing—that's more important than the money thing. I think those two things are very valuable pieces of information.

Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.