And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.

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

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

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

It is amazing to me, now, how such wild imaginings and philosophies - inspired by a night charged with frights and calamities - made such perfectly good sense to Owen Meany and me, but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.

She was an expert at the art of sudden appearance.

A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy