It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound.

In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases

My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons.

I want to go on being a student," I told him. "I want to be a teacher. I'm just a reader," I said. "DON'T SOUND SO ASHAMED," he said. "READING IS A GIFT." "I learned it from you," I told him. "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LEARNED IT- IT'S A GIFT. IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT. IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A WAY OF LIFE YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT.

The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.

She sat keenly white and still among them, a witness to everything--maybe determining nothing, possibly judging it all.

The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me.