Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide.

Suicide is the most private and mysterious of acts, inexplicable because the chief actor is never there to explain it.

No literary form is more revealing, more spontaneous or more individual than a letter.

I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love.

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

I thought of inviting you to my other club but you know how it is. Lunching there is a useful way of reminding people that you're still alive, but the members will come up and congratulate you on the fact.

Metaphysical speculation is about as pointless as a discussion on the meaning of one's lungs. They're for breathing.