It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

People forget years and remember moments.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.

Clichés so often befall vain people.

I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

There is some reason, obviously, that you are drawn to your material, but the way in which you explore it might come to be quite different from what you would expect.

Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.

I think that I'm serious, but I don't think that I'm inordinately bleak.

Internal character: how you behave when no one is watching.

I wish I were either rich enough or poor enough to do a lot of things that are impossible in my present comfortable circumstances.

When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches.

The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature.

A sea setting us upon the ice has brought us close to danger.

Nothing translates worse than comedy into the printed word.

With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.

Never give up! And remember, determination is as important as talent.

Every ending is a new beginning. Through the grace of God, we can always start again. (Page 120.)

It was so much fun to do, play the blues and then play a Monkees set on the same night.