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

I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil.

The way you write affects what you say.

As Kierkegaard was the first to suggest, we can never know where our prayers are likely to go nor from whom the answers will come. When we think we are nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.

The greater the power of any subjective state, the more total is a Romantic's assumption that everyone understands exactly what he is about to do, therefore waste not a moment by stopping to tell them.

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

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