I'd love to be able to write an in-depth piece of what causes men like [Richard] Nixon and [H.R.]Haldeman and [John] Ehrlichman and all the rest of them not only to run, but what causes us to vote for them.

(on being born on Christmas Day, 1924) I was a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped.

It has forever been thus: So long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms - all of them - may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, an article of faith, an act of courage.

Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull.

If you write beautifully, you write beautifully, that's all.

There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.

a basic “must” for every writer: A simple solitude-physical & mental.