I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print.

Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.

I don’t know who my parents were. I know nothing about my inheritance. I could be Jewish; I could be part Negro; I could be Irish; I could be Russian. I am spiritually a mix anyway, but I did have a solid childhood fortunately, because of some wonderful women who brought me up. I never had a father or a man in the house, and that was a loss...

A writer can make a fortune in America, but he can't make a living.

On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth was following its orbit about the sun as it has obediently done for nearly five billion years.

You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.