All novelists write in a different way, but I always write in longhand and then do two versions of typescript on a computer.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

For at eight o’clock the world came to an end. It was reading time. The hours between eight in the evening and one or two in the morning have always been my magic hours.

Without Ruth’s partnership and encouragement over the years, my own work would have been impossible. We were called by God as a team.

Please don’t be upset. The last thing in the world I want is to see you upset and that too with me. It’s terrifying to see your beautiful eyes turn red with anger.

Any similarity between existing people and certain characters in this book is due solely to insight into human nature.

God didn't send His only Son to die on the cross so that we can hide behind our guilt, shame, and pride.

I guess we're living in a pretty sensitive world and there's nothing you can do about that.

Every day is a different day in New York; there's always something new going on.

I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be. -Dolly

Like I said, a 30-year-old hockey player, even when I came to New York when I was 30, I was on the downside of my career, pretty much the end of my career.

Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death.