I don't think you have the right to shout about other people's private life.

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.

I have never begun a novel which wasn't going to stretch me further than I had ever stretched before.

It's true: one of the things that I've always thought about American society is that you never get the sort of natural politicisation of class consciousness that you would get in the United Kingdom or even in Australia.

I'm always the one with the activist friends. I've been an activist very little.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

(From the story The Last Days of a Famous Mime) He said nothing. He was mildly annoyed at her presumption: that he had not thought this many, many times before. With perfect misunderstanding she interpreted his passivity as disdain. Wishing to hurt him, she slapped his face. Wishing to hurt her, he smiled brilliantly.