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

Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasms.

I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.

Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.

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.

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.

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.