We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. ... Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.

Men emerge pale from the little printing plant at four sharp, ghosts for an instant, blinking, until the outdoor light overcomes the look of constant indoor light clinging to them.

It seems to me the book has not just aesthetic values - the charming little clothy box of the thing, the smell of the glue, even the print, which has its own beauty. But there's something about the sensation of ink on paper that is in some sense a thing, a phenomenon rather than an epiphenomenon. I can't break the association of electric trash with the computer screen. Words on the screen give the sense of being just another passing electronic wriggle.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self- solitude is the enemy of well- being.

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.

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

We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything