“Literature is a writer's secret life recorded in symbols.”
“Symbols are miracles we have recorded into language.”
“Literature, so far as it is Literature, is an ‘apocalypse of Nature,’ a revealing of the ‘open secret.”
“Literature doesn’t exactly have a strong mental-health track record.”
“The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are... The good writers touch life often.”
“Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship.”