When I'm not writing or reading, I'm thinking about both.

Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.

If one's fated to be born in Caesar's Empire, let him live aloof, provincial, by the seashore.

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. Even your super weirdo creep cousin.

I am quite prepared to die here [in NY]. It doesn't matter at all. I don't know better places, or perhaps if I do I am not prepared to make a move.

...in the business of writing what one accumulates is not expertise but uncertainties. Which is but another name for craft.