Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

The main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer; it's possessed by the reader.

you know that the urge for revenge is a fact of marital life.

I had spent years thinking about one thing while I was doing another. I had, in fact, prided myself on being able to do two things at once.

I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination.

I learned why 'out riding alone' is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.

Some novelists are luckier than others in the eras of their formative intellectual years, but all Weltanschauungs return, which means that most novelists have at least a chance of a revival.