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

My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me

In a novel, it's hard to keep track of everybody

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.

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

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

My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever