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

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

What's the use of being a writer if you can't irritate a great many people?

Great hope has no real footing unless one is willing to face into the doom that may also be on the way. p.207

I become an actor, a quick-change artist, as if I can trap the Prince of Truth in the act of switching a style.

No heart is so hard as the timid heart.

Simple narcissism gives the power of beasts to politicians, professional wrestlers and female movie stars.