The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.

I write to make sense of my life." -John Cheever, quoted in _Cheever - A Life_ (2009) by Blake Bailey

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.

The secret of keeping young is to read children's books. You read the books they write for little children and you'll keep young. You read novels, philosophy, stuff like that and it makes you feel old.

Sometimes the easiest-seeming stories to a reader are the hardest kind to write.

Fiction must compete with first-rate reporting. If you cannot write a story that is equal to a factual account of battle in the streets or demonstrations, then you can't write a story.

I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be.