“Realism can break a writer's heart.”

“Unhappy endings might seem more realistic than happy ones, but reality often contained a streak of fantasy that realism lacked.”

“Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way. The reason for ensuring that that privileged arena is preserved is not that writers want the absolute freedom to say and do whatever they please. It is that we, all of us, readers and writers and citizens and generals and goodmen, need that little, unimportant-looking room. We do not need to call it sacred, but we do need to remember that it is necessary”

“Whores and writers, Mahound. We are the people you can't forgive.”

“One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions.”

“The human race is a life sentence...it's a rough confinement, and sometimes we all need to break out of jail.”

“My heart broke open and history fell in.”