The writer's duty is to keep on writing.

What I really mean is that a great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.

Writing is a form of self-flagellation.

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.

I think it's unfortunate to have critics for friends.

We would have to settle for the elegant goal of becoming ourselves.

Wickedly funny to read and morally bracing as only good satire can be.