I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.
You are perfectly entitled to invent your life and to claim that it's true.
I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be.
I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what Im hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want.
It's just that it's hard to believe in greatness.
You would have to be very optimistic to think that any of your books will be among the books that survive in the very long run. I think if a writer is lucky enough to still have a few books around after he's gone, a few that are still being read, then he's accomplished quite a lot.