Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience.

Writing fiction is like music. You have to keep it moving. You can have slow movements but there has to be a sense of momentum, of going someplace. You hear a snatch of Beethoven and it has a sense of momentum that is unmistakably his. That's a nice quality if you can do it in fiction.

Wickedness was like food: once you got started it was hard to stop; the gut expanded to take in more and more.

Figure out where you're going before you go there: he was told that a long time ago.

People go around mourning the death of God; it's the death of sssin that bothers me. Without ssin, people aren't people any more, they're just ssoul-less sheep.

Journalism has not only its social stimulations but its aesthetic virtues. An invitation into print, from however suspect a source, is an opportunity to make something beautiful, to discover within oneself a treasure that would otherwise have remained buried.

Being a divorcee in a small town is a little like playing Monopoly; eventually you land on all the properties.