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

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.

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

There is never only one, of anyone

Self-acceptance can be daunting at first, but it is made easier with the understanding that self-acceptance is not hinged on perfection. Self-acceptance is the starting point.

Nobody is more individual than you, so be confident with who you are and what you have to offer because everybody has got things to offer.

You are Gods chief creation, and you are here for His pleasure and His glory.

Strength is the outcome of need; security sets a premium on feebleness.

No town can fail of beauty, though its walks were gutters and its houses hovels, if venerable trees make magnificent colonnades along its streets.

I love seeing someone else's health improve.

The surest step toward joy in the morning is virtue in the evening.

What Obama did wrong with executive power is he tried to change the law. He tried to ignore the law. And under the Constitution, Article I, all legislative authority is vested in Congress.

The damage of teaching: the constant contact with the undeveloped.