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

The writer works in a lonely way.

A writer is a human being. He has to live with a sense of honor.

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.

In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75

Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own

Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.