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.

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.

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.

I liked Camille Paglia. I liked her even better when I heard her talk.

Fame is not gifted, you have to earn it.

Free enterprise is essentially a formula not just for wealth creation, but for life satisfaction.

I just became fascinated with how complex and unlikely the universe is and life is and Catholicism gives me an answer to that.

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

I've travelled around the UK a lot recently and have discovered that I really like trains. If you're in the quiet carriage, nobody can get hold of you and you can relax.

They [Erasers] were bad fliers," Angel chimed in, "And in their minds, they weren't all kill the mutants, like they usually are. They were like, remember to flap!

Personally I've never put much store by honesty- I mean how can you trust a word whose first letter you don't even pronounce

Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.

For any alliance to work, the focus must remain on solving specific problems.

Neither your family nor your culture gave you your personality. You created it yourself.