The horror of the Twentieth Century was the size of each new event, and the paucity of its reverberation.

To know what you want to say is not the best condition for writing a novel. Novels go happiest when you discover something you did not know you knew: an insight into one of your opaque characters, a metaphor that startles you... a truth... that used to elude you.

The condition that is most disagreeable in your life becomes the most useful one. You know, I feel the same way about the U.S. Army. It was absolutely the worst experience of my life, and it was probably the single most valuable experience.

We're all divided souls, we've got two natures in us, You measure schizophrenia not by the fact that you're divided but how well the divisions speak to one another.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

You never do find out what makes you tick, and after a while it's unimportant.

Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts.