Literature has low enough standards. But we can avoid writing the worst literature if we make ourselves ask ourselves, every two or three sentences we write, 'Is that what I really think?'

It is very difficult to teach navigation theory to someone who clings to the shore.

An essay is a work of literary art which has a minimum of one anecdote and one universal idea.

The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

The principle of literature is devotion to the particulars of life.

No work of literature is the product of only one or two conscious ideas. A story is mysteriously dense of meaning.

The secret of literature, which conventional people don't guess, is that writers are forever looking for the surprising revelation - not for reinforcement of collective wisdom.

For a short-story writer, a story is the combination of what the writer supposed the story would likely be about - plus what actually turned up in the course of writing.

Apprenticeship is one of the dearest roles of childhood, not just watching Dad or Mother, but being taught a hands-on trade.

Emily was feeling the elation of conscientious hosts when they can temporarily escape a ubiquitous houseguest.

No one is shallow and vulgar forever; sooner or later the whole species likes to be profound.

It's hard to know what's right in this life, ' she said. 'We do what we can, but what we really need is mercy. Do you know who taught me that?' A grin. 'You.'"P459

He did not know that he was expected to attempt to buy his way into society and that they anticipated the pleasure of rejecting him. He had no time to notice their disappointment.

He is, I think, already pondering a magisterial project: that of buggering the English language, the ultimate revenge of the colonialised.

I don't do well around the angry, bitter and emotionally fragile among us, which may eliminate 70% of the population.

Here's a tip: never get drunk while wearing a hooded sweatshirt. You will eventually think there's someone right behind you.

To create the world cost God nothing; to save it from sin cost His Life Blood.

My first hip-hop performance was at Carnegie Hall with Wyclef, ... I got a little feature and he announced me as the 'hip-hop violinist.' The next night I played at the Apollo.

A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.

I'm always trying to get those interviews that are impossible to get, because they are the ones that are most interesting to the audience.

Do not be an arrogant scholar, for scholarship cannot subsist with arrogance.