“Every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications.”

“Every writer dips his brush into his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

“According to the Talmud, every blade of grass has its own angel bending over it, whispering, “Grow, grow.”

“Thackeray's a good writer and Flaubert is a great artist. Trollope is a good writer and Dickens is a great artist. Colette is a very good writer and Proust is a great artist. Katherine Anne Porter was an extremely good writer and Willa Cather was a great artist.”

“Perhaps every writer who thoroughly creates a fictional world will inevitably create a mirror of his own time and yet also create a world that no one else but him has ever visited...”

“A turbulent history has taught Chinese leaders that not every problem has a solution and that too great an emphasis on total mastery over specific events could upset the harmony of the universe.”