When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start.

The art of the novel is to arrive at that artless point where your characters become more real than yourself.

The contradictory remarks of politicians are forgotten; the more asinine predictions of pundits are buried with mercy.

The ultimate tendency of liberalism is vegetarianism.

Growth is a greater mystery than death. All of us can understand failure, we all contain failure and death within us, but not even the successful man can begin to describe the impalpable elations and apprehensions of growth.

You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.

You can't be a serious writer of fiction unless you believe the story you are telling.