“If your writing doesn't keep you up at night, it won't keep anyone else up either”

“If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.”

“You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.”

“...if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any more than a woman can have a baby by watching some other woman have one. It is a genital process, and all of its stages are intra-abdominal;”

“A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.”

“I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.”

“Up close, she could see the sharp, cold, look that she constantly shot at Mr. Treviso, particularly when there was a break, and she was waiting to come in. It shattered illusion for Mildred. She preferred to remain at a distance, to enjoy this child as she seemed, rather than as she was.”