If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.

People regard art too highly, and history not enough

Half my life is an act of revision; more than half the act is performed with small changes.

Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.

He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.

Grant us safe lodging, and holy rest,” Mrs. Grogan was saying, “and peace at last.” Amen, thought Wilbur Larch, the Saint of St. Cloud’s, who was seventy-something, and an ether addict, and who felt that he’d come a long way and still had a long way to go.

I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.