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.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

We invent what we love and what we fear.

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

If pride is a sin ... moral pride is the greatest sin.

Almost everyone is dying to leave home, eventually; and almost everyone needs to.

Life," Garp wrote, "is sadly not structured like a good old-fashioned novel. Instead an end occurs when those who are meant to peter out have petered out. All that is left is memory. But even a nihilist has memory.