Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing.

Writing is a solitary business. It takes over your life. In some sense, a writer has no life of his own. Even when he’s there, he’s not really there.

If you're not ready for everything, you're not ready for anything.

All through my writing life I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

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

I think the act of talking about something - with a friend, or someone in your family, or someone you care about, and you're discussing something that you both admire - can often sharpen your thoughts about what you've read or seen and help you think more clearly about it.

The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I'm talking about myself very directly.