I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone.

For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.

When I remember my family, I always remember their backs. They were always indignantly leaving places.

Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house.

Homesickness is nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time.

Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.