At certain crucial moments - an emergency or an opportunity - one must act first and think later.

Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great.

The most important things in our intimate lives can't be discussed with strangers, except in books.

I think that there are empty ecological niches in the literary landscape crying to be filled and when a book more or less fills a niche it's seized on, even when it's a far from perfect fit...

I think sincerity was my sole aesthetic and realism my experimental technique.

Paris... is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail.

As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together

Tennessee Williams recognized that great theater begins with great talkers, and that great talkers obey two rules: they never sound like anyone else and they never say anything directly.

If I take a less defensive tone, I'd admit that I couldn't write today a very jazzy, contemporary look at America as I did in 1979 in States of Desire.

Ive always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.

I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be

With faith, we can walk through the fair un-harmed.

It is at the edge of excellence that genius awaits.

We laugh, that we may not cry.

Love has no meaning without understanding

By the time I had finished my studies at St. Paul's School, I knew I wanted to be an actor.

It now appears that the fracturing of that ice is happening much more quickly than people previously thought, apparently at a slow melt.

I tend to ... if I decide to do a job, want to be able to trust my director...

Growing old is not growing up.

A friendship built on business can be glorious, while a business built on friendship can be murder.

It's age. It's a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It's an increasing lack of confidence. I'm not the only one. I've checked with other people.