I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.

Power, for the writer....lies in his ability to reveal if only a little bit more about the complexity of humanity.

The thing to do is to exploit the meaning of the life you have.

Words are your business, boy. Not just the word. Words are everything. The key to the rock, the answer to the question.

When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical.

I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.