Thus we try to keep our heroes alive; hence we remember them.

There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long a novel is in your head before you start to write it.

If I had to be anything," he told her, "I'd probably be a socialist, but I don't want to be anything.

There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly.

Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my limited abilities, but his decidedly philosophical stance about how to conduct your life, what you should do to compensate for your limitations. This was essential to me, both as a student - and not a good one - and as a wrestler who was not a natural athlete but who had found something he loved.

Maybe television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer's irritation: he knows that wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn't reading.

A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly.