A woman’s beauty lies, not in any exaggeration of the specialized zones, nor in any general harmony that could be worked out by means of the sectio aurea or a similar aesthetic superstition; but in the arabesque of the spine. The curve by which the back modulates into the buttocks. It is here that grace sits and rides a woman’s body.

Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.

If you look at the best-seller list, it is mostly thrillers. Very few books attempt to create an image of the life we live. I knew there were writers who wore tweed coats and lived in Connecticut and somehow made a living, and that's what I aimed to do. I've tried to write as well as I can with books that say something to any reader.

The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it.

Without rain, there would be no life.

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

Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.