In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.

Sometimes before people know what they're saying, they already love the language.

What we owe men is some freedom from their part in a murderous game in which they kick each other to death with one foot, bracing themselves on our various comfortable places with the other.

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

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

We write about what we don't know about what we know.

My job is to get people to write something truthful, something about truth and beauty - wherever they are - and to understand how literature is made. And then if they become great writers, that's great, and probably has nothing to do with me.