You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do—and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time. A lot of the people whose work they’ve taught in the schools for the last thirty years, I can’t understand why people read them and why they are taught.

It's lack that gives us inspiration. It's not fullness.

How many times can a man go down and still be alive?

See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream.

You should love literature. You should live in the library. Forget about films.

You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.

I don't like to go to theaters, because I don't like the way most people behave in theaters.