There is nothing safe about sex. There never will be.

I don't read other writers because I'm writing all the time. It's too disturbing to read a writer with a good style when you're in the middle of putting your work together.

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

Women think of being a man as a gift. It is a duty. Even making love can be a duty. A man has always got to get it up, and love isn't always enough.

The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.

Only another writer can know how much damage writing a novel can do to you. It's an unnatural activity to sit at a desk and squeeze words out of yourself.

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