I'm really sorry for people growing up right now, because they have some cockeyed idea that they can get by with their eyes closed; the cane they're tapping is money, and that won't take them in the right direction.

If you want to do things, do things.

I was a fantastic student until ten, and then my mind began to wander.

That heartbreaking moment when you finish an amazing book, and you are forced to return to reality.

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

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.

I write for the still, small possibility of justice.