I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.
Michael CunninghamVenture too far for love, she tells herself, and you renounce citizenship in the country you've made for yourself.
Michael CunninghamWhat a thrill, what a shock, to be alive on a morning in June, prosperous, almost scandalously privileged, with a simple errand to run.
Michael CunninghamAt the risk, then, of being shunned by some of my gloomier peers, I venture to tell you that writers work like demons, suffer greatly, and are also happy, in unmistakable ways, some of the time. If we had no knowledge of happiness, our novels wouldn't sufficiently resemble real life. Some of us are even made a little bit happy, on occasion, by the writing process itself. I mean, really, if there wasn't some sort of enjoyment to be derived, would any of us keep doing it?
Michael Cunningham