Writing allows for fictitious voices - the voices of persons unlike myself - that might otherwise be muted.

Honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards are very encouraging. I know that it might sound strange that a writer who has published many books still needs encouragement, but this is true.

Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light.

The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn't read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial.

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

She wasn't in love but she would love him, if that would save her.

Ultimately, we measure ourselves against our own ideas of idealism and perfection, and we don't always come very close to them.