Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great.

The most important things in our intimate lives can't be discussed with strangers, except in books.

I think that there are empty ecological niches in the literary landscape crying to be filled and when a book more or less fills a niche it's seized on, even when it's a far from perfect fit...

I think sincerity was my sole aesthetic and realism my experimental technique.

Paris... is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail.

As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together

Tennessee Williams recognized that great theater begins with great talkers, and that great talkers obey two rules: they never sound like anyone else and they never say anything directly.

If I take a less defensive tone, I'd admit that I couldn't write today a very jazzy, contemporary look at America as I did in 1979 in States of Desire.

Ive always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.

I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be

At certain crucial moments - an emergency or an opportunity - one must act first and think later.

When we are in love, we are convinced nobody else will do. But as time goes, others do do, and often do do, much much better.

Challenging the truth is like playing tennis against the wall! The defeat is inevitable!

In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.

My weapon is literature

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity.

The acne thing was bad. The shoulders, the face, my voice changed. I had a period every other week.

I hate failure and I am in love with achievement.

Perhaps I failed, but I did my best, These masters of mine may do the rest.

War is the suicide of humanity because it kills the heart and kills love.

I've got loads of ideas. I just have no idea what to do with those ideas