A work of art, so far as it is a work of art, cannot - whatever the artist's personal intention - advocate anything at all.

I don't write easily or rapidly. My first draft usually has only a few elements worth keeping. I have to find what those are and build from them and throw out what doesn't work, or what simply is not alive.

The "happening" operates by creating an asymmetrical network of surprises, without climax or consummation, this is the alogism of dreams rather than the logic of most art.

To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That’s what lasts. That’s what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better.

Fear of sexuality is the new, disease-sponsored register of the universe of fear in which everyone now lives.

Along with people who pretty themselves for the camera, the unattractive and the disaffected have been assigned their beauty.

Writing is a mysterious activity.