A Book Is Meant Not

In Novels, I Said, People Are Transfigured By Love. They’re Elevated, Made Different, Lifted Out Of Their Ordinariness…it’s Not So Much To Ask, I Said. I Just Want Love To Live Up To Its Publicity.

People ... Have No Idea What A Hard Job It Is For Two Writers To Be Friends. Sooner Or Later You Have To Talk About Each Other's Work.

Sex Almost Always Disappoints Me In Novels. Everything Can Be Said Or Done Now, And That's What I Often Find: Everything, A Feeling Of Generality Or Dispersal. But In My Experience, True Sex Is So Particular, So Peculiar To The Person Who Yearns For It. Only He Or She, And No One Else, Would Desire So Very Much That Very Person Under Those Circumstances. In Fiction, I Miss That Sense Of Terrific Specificity.

Chic Is A Convent For Unloved Women.

Aphorisms Are Bad For Novels. They Stick In The Reader's Teeth.