No one could have fathomed what a life he'd led, for it was chiefly a life lived in his mind.

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

There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.

I thought some of the stories were neat; I liked some of the liturgy and some of the songs. If you're a writer you have some inclination to pay attention. I didn't just tune it out and think about baseball. So, it had an effect on me.

I have a friend who says that reviewers are the tickbirds of the literary rhinoceros-but he is being kind. Tickbirds perform a valuable service to the rhino and the rhino hardly notices the birds.

Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic.

Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.