I'm not against TV; I don't go on the morning talk shows because I'm not invited. If I was, I might go.

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

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

The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion.

Being a famous writer is a little like being a tall dwarf. You're on the edge of normality.

There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't.

Nothing feels worse than other people's good times.