The pleasure isn't in owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you.

There's something every woman wants, and that's a man to blame.

Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing.

It's best to give while your hand is still warm.

I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and turn it around again.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

When I have a first draft, I have a floor under my feet that I can walk on. Then, especially with the help of the computer, rewriting is so easy to do with the computer, much easier than it used to be with the typewriter. So the books go through numerous drafts.