Some of the poetic writers who insert passages of realism in their texts have no underlying philosophy to uphold them, and revert to realism.

All creatures are flawed, but out of the flaw may come the universe.

All my writing is about the recognition that there is no single reality. But the beauty of it is that you nevertheless go on, walking towards utopia, which may not exist, on a bridge which might end before you reach the other side.

I would say my theme has always been paradise lost, always the lost cause, the lost leader, the lost utopia.

A good writer cannot avoid having social consciousness. I don't mean this about small pieces of writing, but about a big book. If it's a big book, there has to be more than one undertow.

Dreiser... I love... and almost wouldn't speak to anyone who ever attacked him.

I've been willing to go for years without publishing. That's been my career.