I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks. |
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. |
There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative. |
Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake. |
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon. |
It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. |
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. |
I thought I would lose, so I didn't prepare a speech. |
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. |
History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. |
In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment. |
We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy. |
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. |
Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society. |
The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century. |
I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad. |