I sometimes feel that my goal as a novelist would be to write a novel in which the language was so transparent that the reader would forget that language was the medium of understanding. Of course that's not possible, but it's some sort of idealized goal.

I've learned not to look at reviews. Early on, I did. I was always curious.

No one can cross the boundary into another -- for the simple reason that no one can gain access to himself

Writing has always had a tactile quality for me. It's a physical experience.

For me a paragraph in a novel is a bit like a line in a poem. It has its own shape, its own music, its own integrity.

As my friend George Oppen once said to me about getting old: what a strange thing to happen to a little boy.

As long as you are dreaming, there is always a way out