“I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place.”

“People who read are not too lazy to turn on the television; they prefer books.”

“One of the few things I know about writing is this: Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book, give it, give it all, give it now.”

“Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination without passing through the world.”

“The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, & it smells good. Writing is mere writing, literature is mere. It appeals only to the subtlest senses—the imagination’s vision, & the imagination’s hearing—& the moral sense, & the intellect. This writing that you do, that so thrills you, that so rocks & exhilarates you, as if you were dancing next to the band, is barely audible to anyone else.”

“I do not so much write a book as sit up with it, as a dying friend. I hold its hand and hope it will get better.”

“‎Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.”