Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty.

America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain.

We don't all dig Shakespeare uniformly, or even 'Little Red Riding Hood.' The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.

All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear.

Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by.

Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.