I learned you don't discover the evidence of any cause in its result.

Art originates in play - in improvisation, experiment, and fantasy; it remains forever, in its deepest instincts, playful and spontaneous, an exercise of the imagination analogous to the exercising of the physical body to no purpose other than ecstatic release.

Yet I will make you all love me and I will punish myself to spite your love.

People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away.

I never change, I simply become more myself.

Productivity is a relative matter. And it's really insignificant: What is ultimately important is a writer's strongest books.

That is the mystery: Reading Henry James can yield prose that is contrary to James, yet inspired by him. Who can understand this?