“For what’s a writer without longing?”
“Writers, even unpublished writers, have a tendency not to notice what’s going on around them when they are the center of attention.”
“All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what’s cool.”
“A writer is nothing without a reader; a reader is nothing without a writer.”
“We writers can use our own longing - and frequently do - without ever having to understand or analyze it. That is why our stories are often wiser than we are.”
“An English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, ‘What’s your alma mater?’ I told him, ‘Books.”