The answer to religion is not no religion, but another way of thinking of it. Another way of being in it.

In our time, we have become too interested in the artist and his or her character and experience as a way of understanding art. In my view, you should be able to read a book or see a film without knowing a single thing about conditions or circumstances or character of the artist, and experience the work to the full without such information. Sometimes I feel - speaking for myself - that people know much too much about me, and I wish people knew less and could just read these books and respond to them purely as words on a page.

American literature has always been immigrant.

It's so disappointing, to put it mildly, that people know so much about my life. Because it means that they're always trying to look at my books in terms of my life.

The only people who see the whole picture,' he murmured, 'are the ones who step out of the frame.

It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish; that to do otherwise is to legitimize it.

Question: What is the opposite of faith? Not disbelief. Too final, certain, closed. Itself is a kind of belief. Doubt.