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

I'm willing to show good taste, if I can, in somebody else's living room, but our reading life is too short for a writer to be in any way polite. Since his words enter into another's brain in silence and intimacy, he should be as honest and explicit as we are with ourselves.

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.

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

Basically it's true that my own life has been my chief window for life in America, beginning with my childhood and the conflicts, the struggles, the strains that I felt in my own family.

Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes.

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.