I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope.

I don't believe less is more. I believe that more is more. I believe that less is less, fat fat, thin thin and enough is enough.

The peculiar dignity of men seen eating alone in restaurants on national holidays

Writing is an exercise in sculpture, chipping away at the rock until you find the nose.

Life's tallest order is to keep the feelings up, to make two dollars' worth of euphoria go the distance. And life can't do that. So fiction does.

Like a lot of what happens in novels, inspiration is a sort of spontaneous combustion--the oily rags of the head and heart.

The furthest out is the only place to be.

It's fine, precise, detailed work, the infinitely small motor management of diamond cutters and safecrackers that we do in our heads.

But it's hard to talk about art. Maybe there should be a law against it, some First Amendment gag order like crying fire in a crowded theater.

The living and dead were thrown together, and the dead looked away first.-Description of Doomsday

Easter is the miracle of transformation as seen in the change of seasons, in the maturation of mortal persons, and in the resurrection of souls.

You know what all the plutonium can buy me?" "Yeah it'll buy you one hell of a funeral!" Angel says angrily to man who was behind everything!

If there’s no sacrifice, there’s no love.

Kitsch is the most pernicious of all prisons. The bars are covered with the gold of simplistic, unreal feelings, so that you take them for the pillars of a palace.

The great object is that every man be armed.

I pop gum. My parents get so annoyed with me. I know my dad wishes he never taught me how to do that.

A positive outlook breeds success, just as a negative outlook breeds failure.

We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.

I like the way my heart beats, I like the way I think; I don't need or want anything to change that.

The bottom line always remains the same: What is the basic humanity of the character? How do I make them resonate with the reader?