There's a certain amount of tyranny in all of us to some extent, and in some people it's much more developed than in others. It's a different balance which makes us all different.

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

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend.

When I begin a story at my desk, the window to my back, the path is not there. As I start to walk, I make the path.

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.

Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow.

To be human is to be in a story.