“Facing a wall when you write really aids your concentration.”

“You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.”

“When your back is to the wall and you are facing fear head on, the only way is forward and through it.”

“If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask... with nothing beneath it?”

“But belligerence was a poor aid to concentration, as were three gins and a bottle of wine”

“[A] couple I had known - who were old friends - asked me what I was going to work on next. I told them I wanted to write a near future book about AIDS concentration camps. They were vehement in their response: they thought it was a terrible idea. Their words both shocked and saddened me. "Do you really want to write a book about homosexuals?" they asked me. "Won't people who read your work be influenced toward sin?"I notice that I don't hear from them much lately.”