“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.”

“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal”

“You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.”

“The feeble-minded, the neurotic, the criminal, perhaps, also, the artist, have unpredictability and perverted innocence in common.”

“The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His works means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning.”

“If there is no mystery, for the artist, to solve inside of his art, then there's no point in it. . . . for me, every act of art is the act of solving a mystery.”

“Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.”