It's the place to begin, always -- to return to home, literally.

The man dies in all those that keep silent.

And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

If I were sure I would pass the physicals, I would be on the next space shuttle to Mars or some other planet. I'll leave the calculations and the navigational tasks to you while I bask in your ingenuity. Find me a place in the capsule and watch me outdo Michael Jackson's moonwalk to the music of the spheres.

Writers - human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

What I teach is literary criticism and comparative literature and so on and that's my function, but from time to time it's possible for me actually to help a writer. I read something and something strikes me then, I feel I can talk to that writer about it.