The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

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

Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself.

I'm always looking for insights into the real Doris Day because I'm stuck with this infatuation and need to explain it to myself.

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

What we need is progress with an escape hatch.

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.