The novel is always pop art, and the novel is always dying. That's the only way it stays alive. It does really die. I've been thinking about that a lot.

There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola.

Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel.

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love.

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake.

Gertrude Stein really thought of Hemingway as frail. He almost married Stein.

The text is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.

Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate.

I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis.

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans.

Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don't let anyone limit your dreams

Blame me not for my mistakes, for that's common, but surely do for my achievements which I'm equally unaware of.

Art - when it is really doing what it should do - teaches abstract thinking; it teaches teamwork; it teaches people to actually think about things that they cannot see.

God isn't trying to make our lives easier; He wants to make them more meaningful.

Will you tell me how to prevent riches from producing luxury? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?

The injustice done to an individual is sometimes of service to the public.

In writing poetry, all of one's attention is focused on some inner voice.

I believe now, as I alway have, that America's strength is in 'We the People.'

God allows us to feel pain for a reason: to protect us.

What do you have to do? Pack your bags, Go to the station without them, Catch the train, And leave your self behind.