You can't expect to communicate with anyone if you're a bore.

When the beginnings of self destruction enter the heart, it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.

The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man's complexity and the strength and decency of his longings.

Falsehood is a critical element in fiction. Part of the thrill of being told a story is the chance of being hoodwinked. . .The telling of lies is a sort of sleight of hand that displays our deepest feelings about life.

How can a people who do not mean to understand death hope to understand love, and who will sound the alarm?

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.

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