As long as you live, there's always something waiting; and even if it's bad, and you know it's bad, what can you do? You can't stop living.

I remember things the way they should have been.

At one time I used to keep notebooks with outlines for stories. But I found doing this somehow deadened the idea in my imagination. If the notion is good enough, if it truly belongs to you, then you can't forget it-it will haunt you till it's written.

I feel that all a writer has is his own experience.

I'm not a philosopher.

The true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons, memory, yes, it being the earth and water of existence, memory.

One of the most difficult things in writing a novel or anything at all is to choose the point of view from which it's going to be told.