Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.

Probably all writers are at some point briefly under the impression that they are in the forefront of disintegration and chaos, that they are among the first to live and work after things fall apart.

They did more than take our youth away. They also took away the men we were going to be.

Faith is a talent, and it goes the way of all your talents. Getting old is the subtraction of your powers. Which very much goes for writing.

Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.

America is proud of what it does to its writers, the way it breaks and bedevils them, rendering them deluded or drunken or dead by their own hands. To overpower its tender spirits makes America feel tough. Careers are generally short.

I think all writers have a bit of genius in them, and a bit of talent. Genius retreats but talent improves.