All I say is: Let us leave les folles alone; let's just leave them be. Don't judge them. You are not superior to them - don't put them down.

I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.

I've always been slow but I'm even slower now. I'm more into the waiting, or I guess I'm more patient about the waiting.

The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that is uncontrollable - some element of the world that is essentially random and out of control.

Nothing moves at the Hotel New Hampshire! We're screwed down here-for life!

What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too.

but writers, Garp knew, were just observers - good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.