The magic will which makes us see the other side of our natures-dream and disaster, catastrophe and fulfillment-is the great permanent challenge of humanity.

Literature boils with the madcap careers of writers brought to the edge by the demands of living on their nerves, wringing out their memories and their nightmares to extract meaning, truth, beauty.

The steady pressure to consume, absorb, participate, receive, by eye, ear, mouth, and mail involves a cruelty to intestines, blood pressure, and psyche unparalleled in history.

Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.

Conformity is inevitable when folks huddle together in rebellion.

Being a writer is a rather hazardous occupation and there is a horribly high rate of writers who barely have the money for the paper and pen they use for their craft.

The would-bees take their honey from the flowers of creation.

The fact that all of us die anyway (the rumor turns out to be true) is a mere detail in the celestial glow of imagination. The artist's eyes destroy death.

Isolation from power makes men look for a mob in which they can be strong.

If mankind is naturally good, he is sure going against his nature more and more of the time. It sounds like a bad joke: the paranoids are after us.

With short stories, the story-teller must have a story to tell, not merely some sweet prose to take out for a walk

I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily.

It is often simply from lack of creative imagination that we do not go far enough in suffering.

If we just had some time to ourselves, we could talk to each other the way we used to. Maybe about nothing in particular at first, but even that would be a start.

'Caught' is a novel of forgiveness, and the past and the present - who should be and who shouldn't be forgiven. None of my books are ever just about thrills, or it won't work.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

I would start drinking something terrible if I were in a situation where I was surrounded by lies or quiet or secrets. It's just not a real life.

People who wait for the right moment end up waiting forever.

Am I grumpy? I might be. But I think maybe sometimes it's misinterpreted.

A patriotic song is an emotion and you must not embarrass an audience with it, or they will hate your guts.

Empires dissolve and peoples disappear, song passes not away.