There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so as to corner the market.

There is a sociology of horses, as well as a psychology. It is most evident in the world of horse racing, where many horses are gathered together, where year after year, decade after decade, they do the same, rather simple thing - run in races and try to win.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity.

it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco.

Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

I was depressed, but that was a side issue. This was more like closing up shop, or, say, having a big garage sale, where you look at everything you've bought in your life, and you remember how much it meant to you, and now you just tag it for a quarter and watch 'em carry it off, and you don't care. That's more like how it was.