Reasons always came with a purpose, to give the appearance of a struggle between principle and desire. Principle had power only until you found what you had to have.

One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live in it.

I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels.

A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change your life.

There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to tell a particular story.

When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever

Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.