It was hollow, my triumph, I could feel that, but I held on to it just the same.

The thing to remember about the Declaration of Independence and the profession of freedom is that it was written by people who were quite free and who were surrounded by people who were not free. The people who wrote the Declaration of Independence were ventriloquists really. The obsession with freedom makes no sense when it applies to them.

It is sad that unless you are born a god, your life,from its very beginning, is a mystery to you.

The sound of words in a novel is a pretty amazing thing, and I am concerned with the sound of every word I write.

I've come to see that I'm saying something that people generally do not want to hear.

I had come to feel that my mother's love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn't know why, but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone.

A professional writer is a joke. You write because you can't do anything else, and then you have another job.