I can't explain it. It's what turns you to powder, being ground between what you can't do and what you must do. You just turn to dust.

There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real.

Love must wait; it must break one’s bones.

Women fall in love when they get to know you. Men are just the opposite. When they finally know you they're ready to leave

Sometimes you are aware when your great moments are happening, and sometimes they rise from the past. Perhaps it's the same with people.

I'm a frotteur, someone who likes to rub words in his hand, to turn them around and feel them, to wonder if that really is the best word possible.

I deem as heroic those who have the harder task, face it unflinchingly and live. In this world women do that.

Dresscodes are for styleless people.

Hope but not enthusiasm is the proper state for the writer.

What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish.

I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling.

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

An enduring belief in light rises above the darkness of night.

For my part, if a man must needs be a knave I would have him a debonair knave... It makes your sin no worse as I conceive, to do it à la mode and stylishly.

Take me inside. Show me if a fireman knows how to start a fire.

Guilt is glorious when it's well earned.

Donning a glove for a backyard toss, or watching a ball game, or just reflecting upon our baseball days, we are players again, forever young.

Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse.

You can't talk about attacking or assassinating the President of the United States and you shouldn't be able to.

It is one of the ironies of biographical art that some details are more relevant than others, and many details have no relevance at all.