Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

It scored right away with me by being the smooth, fine-grained sort, not the coarse flaky, dry-on-the-outside rubbish full of chunds of gut and gristle to testify to its authenticity.

When starting to think about any novel, part of the motive is: I'm going to show them, this time.

It is natural and harmless in English to use a preposition to end a sentence with.

Whatever part drink may play in the writer's life, it must play none in his or her work.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko: 'You atheist?' "Kingsley Amis: 'Well, yes, but it's more that I hate him.

If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.