 What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. |
| Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea. |
| Truth should not be forced; it should simply manifest itself, like a woman who has in her privacy reflected and coolly decided to bestow herself upon a certain man. |
| Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life. |
| Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better. |
| Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another day's progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper. |
| Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold, they can no longer be worn. |
| But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography. |
| Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them. |
