“The companionship of dead writers is a wonderful form of live friendship.”

“What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.”

“If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.”

“It's easy, after all, not to be a writer. Most people aren't writers, and very little harm comes to them.”

“The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.”

“The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.”

“The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.”