Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.

I can't persuade myself that one of the problems facing the planet today might be a shortage of books by me.

Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.

Every year there's a few more things I'm not sure of. I've decided that a wide-ranging uncertainty is the mark of the true maturity of man.

And, as long as you can make yourself go on choosing the pain over the relief, you can keep going.

Why on earth should I care whether people read me with their eyes or their ears?

The short story, I should point out, is perforce a labor of love in today's literary world; there's precious little economic incentive to write one.