I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

If I miss anything, it's being able to hang out in the city of New York meeting people and talking to them on the corner.

But what's a writer for? The whole point is to put yourself into other lives, other heads-writers have always done that. If you screw up, so someone will tell you, that's all.

Old age is another country, a place of strangeness, sometimes, and dislocation. There's a lot to be done in this country, and a great deal of pleasure there. There are friends, some of whom are sick and needful of you, as you will be of them someday. The world itself is very beautiful. It's a place where you have a lot to do. But you have to do it knowing that sometimes you will be afraid of this new country.

If you want to do things, do things.

The word career is a divisive word. It's a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life.

Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.