What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.

I'm only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation.

Literature usually begets literature.

Writing is a mysterious activity.

The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.

whatever doesn't kill you leaves scars.

Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once…and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you.