A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy.

Kids are perfect people till grownups get their hands on them.

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.

You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.

So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them.

Writing is hard. I learned how to work hard from wrestling, not English courses.

You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.