The quality an artist must have is objectivity in judging his work, plus the honesty and courage not to kid himself about it.

It wasn't until the Nobel Prize that they really thawed out. They couldn't understand my books, but they could understand $30,000.

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is.

If you could just ravel out into time. That would be nice. It would be nice if you could just ravel out into time

Surely there is something in madness, even the demoniac, which Satan flees, aghast at his own handiwork, and which God looks on in pity.

The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.

I took out my watch and listened to it clicking away, not knowing it couldn't even lie