This is what you know about someone you have to hate: he charges you with his crime and castigates himself in you.

This is what you know about someone you have to hate: he charges you with his crime and castigates himself in you.

Let's hope the first comes first.

There were many hours when I never quite know how I'd gotten there or why I stayed.

Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

How can one say, 'No, this isn't a part of life,' since it always is? The contaminant of sex, the redeeming corruption that de-idealizes the species and keeps us everlastingly mindful of the matter we are.