and now, all these years later, it seem to him that the most horrible fact of human existence was that broken hearts mended

And suddenly it didn't seem to matter any more, nothing would matter if she could turn over, turn over and see the stars, turn over and look once and die.

The act of writing itself is done in secret, like masturbation.

True love always happens in a flash.

And then the world exploded.

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

...book-buyers aren't attracted, by and large, by the literary merits of a novel: book-buyers want a good story...something that will first fascinate them, then pull them in and keep them turning the pages.