The writer works in a lonely way.

In America, we have the feeling of the doomed young artist. Fitzgerald was the great example of that.

Writing is like a contact sport, like football. Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they? Yet they can't wait until Saturday comes around so they can play on the high school team, or the college team, and get smashed around. Writing is like that. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it!

There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.

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

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

I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young