Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

In my early twenties, that's when I really began to write. Before that, I was too busy working, keeping myself going.

A lie hides the truth. A story tries to find it.

I've always known a lot of very bad people, destructive, brutes of a certain kind. Then I've seen these lovely impulses and what not, and they've stayed with me and comforted me.

The truth came slowly like a story told by people interrupting each other.

If a person had accused him of meanness, he could have defended himself. But with a dog - you did something cheap to it when you were sure no one was looking, and it was as though you had done it in front of a mirror.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.