It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.

Lots of people want to have written; they don't want to write. In other words, they want to see their name on the front cover of a book and their grinning picture on the back. But this is what comes at the end of a job, not at the beginning.

I wish that I had known back then that a mastery of process would lead to a product. Then I probably wouldn't have found it so frightening to write.

What we are is what we were always meant to be, and that's writers.

It brings me no joy and not enough comfort to dwell too much on things I've said or written or made or worn in the past.

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

Musical composition should bring happiness and joy to people and make them forget their troubles.