There is really no practical help that one can offer: it is a matter of self-discovery, of one's own conviction, or working with one's own work; your style is what seems natural to you. It is a long process of discovery, one that never ends. I am working at it, and will be as long as I live.

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

She sounds the way bananas taste.

Randolph," he said, "were you ever as young as me?" And Randolph said: "I was never so old.

Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.

I've never been a teacher in my life.

our real fears are the sounds of footsteps walking in the corridors of our minds, and the anxieties, the phantom floatings, they create.