Ugliness is more inventive than beauty. Beauty always follows certain camps. I think it's more amusing - ugliness - than beauty.

One can be a great poet and be politically stupid.

I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story.

A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.

My grandfather had a particularly important influence on my life, even though I didn't visit him often, since he lived about three miles out of town and he died when I was six. He was remarkably curious about the world, and he read lots of books.

Never affirm, always allude: allusions are made to test the spirit and probe the heart.

I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.