The worst thing in the world is a bitter woman. That's one thing about your mother, she's never been bitter.

We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.

Art imitates Nature in this; not to dare is to dwindle.

Fiction is very greedy. It will take all you know and then some. The first novel I tried to write, I was struck by this - the appetite of the blank page for ever more information, ever more data. An empty book is a greedy thing. You are right: You wind up using everything you know, and often more than once.