I gave up writing blurbs because you make one friend and 200 enemies.

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.

Think of these books as doors. Open them and let their ideas stir your mind. Study them and they become weapons.

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism

The joy of success outweighs whatever negativity you might get from failing a couple of times.

Those who believe in nothing are very, very jealous and angry at those who believe in something.

There are people with their iPads are taking pictures so much that they're not experiencing the moment. They go home and look at the pictures later.

Revival is when God's people return to God and God returns to them, and everyone sees the difference.

What annoyances are more painful than those of which we cannot complain?

When many different voices send you in different directions, you can't listen to your own.

People never change because they are under threat or under duress. Never. They change because they see something that makes their life seem valuable enough to start moving toward a life worth living.