Writing is finally play, and there's no reason why you should get paid for playing

If football players were armed with guns, there wouldn't be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds.

You have to expect the raps when you have achieved popularity as a writer

No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.

I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?

Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.