It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.

…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.

You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know.

I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station.

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.

You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.

Grown-ups shouldn’t finish books they’re not enjoying. When you’re no longer a child, and you no longer live at home, you don’t have to finish everything on your plate. One reward of leaving school is that you don’t have to finish books you don’t like.