The heavenly light you admire is fossil-light, it's the unfathomably distant past you gaze into, stars long extinct

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

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.

Literature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.

I always rewrite the very beginning of a novel. I rewrite the beginning as I write the ending, so I may spend part of morning writing the ending, the last 100 pages approximately, and then part of the morning revising the beginning. So the style of the novel has a consistency.

It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised.

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?