Writing about the indignities of old age: the daunting stairway to the restaurant restroom, the benefits of a wheelchair in airports and its disadvantages at cocktail parties, giving the user what he described as a child's-eye view of the party and a crotch-level view of the guests. Dying is a matter of slapstick and pratfalls. The aging process is not gradual or gentle. It rushes up, pushes you over and runs off laughing. No one should grow old who isn't ready to appear ridiculous.

I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.

The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedom of speech.

There is always time for failure

The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.

It is desperately important to remember when enough is enough, when you've finished the scene.

What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.