"Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you."
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
"The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode."
"People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them."
"Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them."