“Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.”

“Every time I hear about somebody who wins a never-work-again sum in the lottery but keeps his or her day job I think, not a book person.”

“When a writer talks about his work, he's talking about a love affair.”

“You have made some notes, read some writing books, and done some research. Mostly what you've done is talk about writing a book. An idea for a book is not a book; it is a waste of time. There is no singular thing that makes someone a writer, but there is one thing that makes someone a joke--talking about writing a book without doing any work.”

“But the queen--too long she has suffered the pain of love,hour by hour nursing the wound with her lifeblood,consumed by the fire buried in her heart. [...]His looks, his words, they pierce her heart and cling--no peace, no rest for her body, love will give her none.”

“They are the books, the arts, the academes,That show, contain and nourish all the world.”