When I tried to do something else, everyone behaved as if I was Gypsy Rose Lee trying to paint a Matisse.

For most people, honesty is such an unusual departure from their standard modus operandi - such an abherration in their workaday mendacity - that they feel obliged to alert you when a moment of sincerity is coming on.

When I tried to do something else, everyone behaved as if I was Gypsy Rose Lee trying to paint a Matisse.

I don't write books for people to be friends with the characters. If you want to find friends, go to a cocktail party.

I'm a child in that respect: able to live, physically speaking, on a crumb of anticipation for weeks at a time, but always in danger of crushing the waited-for event with the freight of my excessive hope.

There are certain people in whom you can detect the seeds of madness - seeds that have remained dormant only because the people in question have lived relatively comfortable, middle class lives. They function perfectly well in the world, but you can imagine, given a nasty parent, or a prolonged bout of unemployment, how their potential for craziness might have been realized.

It's hard to resist the magical thinking that the work habits of great writers are the key to their greatness.