Obviously, there is pleasure in the execution of any sort of art, and using language, as Nabokov felt also, is an exquisite process.

Reading yields a wish to write, I think, except if the reading is dull and uninspiring.

The - the sort of thing that I want to do is to strike a resonant chord of universality in other people, which is best done by fiction.

My students often say, "My roommate read this story and really liked it", and it's hard to convince them that there are things wrong with it. I say, "well, people who love you want you to be happy. But I'm your professor and I'm supposed to be teaching you something."

I don't know whether I am different from other people. Perhaps I am. Perhaps no one has a personality, and people are inventing themselves in the context in which they find themselves.

Most people who are writers go through periods when they can't write.

These are the moments for which we live.