Never demean yourself by talking back to a critic, never. Write those letters to the editor in your head, but don't put them on paper.

What I do requires fantastic concentration... but you can't be totally alone, or you lose all contact with reality, so even when I'm engrossed and secluded, Jack Dunphy can be there. He's my oldest and best friend, and best critic too.

With one exception everybody who has ever been involved with me is still a great friend of mine.

If you have a single narrator, a person like an "I" - "'I' did this" and "'I' did that" - it automatically solves the most difficult problem in writing.

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

I dream of eagles and bring forth sparrows.

My yardstick is how somebody treats me.