Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

Without a reader, I cannot write. It's like a kiss: they cannot be done alone.

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

Only the opium eater truly understands the pain of death.

I look up the telephone number of Alcoholics Anonymous. Then, my hands shaking, I open the bar and drink the leftover whiskey, gin and vermouth-whatever I can lay my shaking hands on.

I believe that writing is an account of the powers of extrication.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.