Of course the success of A Boy's Own Story took me utterly off guard.

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.

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

In the marketplace of ideas, a dime is expensive than the cost price of beauty

Once you've caught a glimpse of the cosmos through the back doors of your church, it doesn't seem like such a big deal to suggest to a sweet young couple that they quit sleeping with other people.

In every man the memory of the struggles and the heroes of the past is alive. But these memories are not incompatible with the desire for peace in the future.

We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do that.

Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?

No matter what happens, always be yourself.

Even if you are 18, my advice to you is: plan for your future.

It was the beauty that caught me and held my soul hostage... Remember those days? Had you smellin' my boxers.

I did however realize that only 4% of the world's population turns creative when in contact with water and thus we dialed this dimension down and changed direction.

When I was labeled stupid, that scarred me forever.