Everyone in California is from somewhere else.

Writes have an island, a center of refuge, within themselves. It is the mind's anchorage, the soul's Great Good Place.

When writing is good, everything is symbolic, but symbolic writing is seldom good.

We're in the world of communications more and more, tough we're in communication less and less.

The past is useless. That explains why it is past.

As the style of Faulkner grew out of his rage--out of the impotence of his rage--the style of Hemingway grew out of the depth andnuance of his disenchantment.

Writing has made me rich-not in money but in a couple hundred characters out there, whose pursuits and anguish and triumphs I've shared. I am unspeakably grateful at the life I have come to lead.