We all begin life as parasites within the mother, and writers begin their existence imitatively, within the body of letters.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

There is the fear that you somehow neglected to say what was really yours to say.

Of plants tomatoes seemed the most human, eager and fragile and prone to rot.

When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.

But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.

Writing doesn't require drive. It's like saying a chicken has to have drive to lay an egg.