Over the years, I've found one rule. It is the only one I give on those occasions when I talk about writing. A simple rule. If you tell yourself you are going to be at your desk tomorrow, you are by that declaration asking your unconscious to prepare the material. You are, in effect, contracting to pick up such valuables at a given time. Count on me, you are saying to a few forces below: I will be there to write.

The Barry Goldwater movement excited the depths because the apocalypse was brought more near, and like millions of other whites, I had been leading a life which was a trifle too pointless and a trifle too full of guilt and my gullet was close to nausea with the empty promises of an empty liberal center.

I think the internet is the greatest waste of time since masturbation was discovered.

There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.

Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.

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

The only faithfulness people have is to emotions they're trying to recapture