The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.

The only way to get anything out of a writer's brains is to leave him or her alone until he or she is damn well ready to write it down.

Hitler at the end thought that he himself was one more casualty in the war.

There were creative-writin g teachers long before there were creative-writin g courses, and they were called and continue to be called editors.

In this world, you get what you pay for.

For a Russian to be chivalrous with an American is a spiritual impossibility, a conradiction in terms.