“I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story.”
“I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.”
“I wrote you this poem because i was afraid/ To come out and tell you i want to get laid.”
“I was not going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life reduced to a short story. I was going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life expanded to a novel, and I still do.”
“I used to feel for years and years and years that I was very remiss not to have written a novel and I would question people who wrote novels and try to find out how they did it and how they had got past page 30. Then, with the approach of old age, I began to just think: “Well, lucky I can do anything at all.”
“Early on I set out to write the next Great American Novel, and then later on I set out the silverware and enjoyed my dinner in silence.”