It's no secret that in my books I'm trying to make the comic and the serious rub up against each other just as closely and uncomfortably as I can.

When I look back over my novels what I find is that when I think I'm finished with a theme, I'm generally not. And usually themes will recur from novel to novel in odd, new guises.

People sometimes get in the habit of being loyal to a mistake.

Who but an English professor would threaten to kill a duck a day and hold up a goose as an example?

I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.

You can't possibly judge your ability to control something until you've experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand?

Even at its most perceptive, sociology deals in abstractions.