Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House

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

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

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.

At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.

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

An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.