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.

Hoping to fashion a mirror, the lover doth polish the face of his beloved until he produces a skull.

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

I would rather be seated between any two women than any two men at a dinner party.

There's always something new by looking at the same thing over and over.

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

...as all souls are equal before their Maker, a two inch putt counts the same as a 250 yard drive. There is a comedy in this and a certain unfairness even, which makes golf an even apter mirror of reality.