We've been hearing about the death of the novel ever since the day after Don Quixote was published.

I realized that I might not ever make it as a writer, that it might be because I wasn't good enough, or that it might be because the odds were just too long.

There is a shabby nobility in failing all by yourself.

Most of the people I write about have been ambitious outlanders who have been attracted to New York from other parts of the world.

If being a spokesman for a generation is a fleeting occupation, being a symbol of an era is downright dangerous for anyone who has the bad luck to outlive it.

Everything becomes symbol and irony when you've been betrayed

Anybody who becomes a movie star becomes successful at projecting a certain image to the public.