One cannot distinguish between human and non-human acts. One cannot point, one cannot say this man here is a man and that man there is a devil.

I think sometimes writers must attempt to communicate the incommunicable, because, whether they wish it or not, they're the ones to whom it falls.

I think empathy's a terrible danger for a writer.

What you're constantly seeking isn't a style, but a transparency between your soul and the words. And your soul is ever in flux, so therefore you have to constantly find new forms of words that might be able to register these changes in the soul.

You have to attempt to find new forms that will force you to write freshly and better and hopefully more truthfully.

I think it's always wrong of writers to make too much of the pains of their labors, because most people have much worse jobs and suffer such indignities and hardships.

What reality was ever made by realists?