The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part of his nation, part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.

You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an expensive wife, an expensive house, and a style of living that never lets you aford the time to take the chance to write what you wish.

Isaac Singer was born in Poland and doesn't write in English. Still, he's an American.

I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal

In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices

I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.

People who light up like Roman candles come down in the dark very quickly.