Nothing Bad Can Happen To A Writer.

As For Himself, However Hateful Life Was, It Was Hateful In A Home And Not In The Gutter. Many Americans Hated Their Homes. The Number Of Homeless In America Couldn't Touch The Number Of Americans Who Had Homes And Families And Hated The Whole Thing.

My God! The English Language Is A Form Of Communication! Conversation Isn't Just Crossfire Where You Shoot And Get Shot At! Where You've Got To Duck For Your Life And Aim To Kill! Words Aren't Only Bombs And Bullets — No, They're Little Gifts, Containing Meanings!

Never In His Life Had Occasion To Ask Himself, "why Are Things The Way They Are?" Why Should He Bother, When The Way They Were Was Always Perfect? Why Are Things The Way They Are? The Question To Which There Is No Answer, And Up Till Then He Was So Blessed He Didn't Even Know The Question Existed.

Nothing Has A More Sinister Effect On Art Than The Artist's Desire To Prove That He's Good. The Terrible Temptation Of Idealism! You Must Achieve Mastery Over Your Idealism, Over Your Virtue As Well As Over Your Vice, Aesthetic Mastery Over Everything That Drives You To Write In The First Place - Your Outrage, Your Politics, Your Grief, Your Love!

I Don’t Ask Writers About Their Work Habits. I Really Don’t Care. Joyce Carol Oates Says Somewhere That When Writers Ask Each Other What Time They Start Working And When They Finish And How Much Time They Take For Lunch, They’re Actually Trying To Find Out, "is He As Crazy As I Am?" I Don’t Need That Question Answered.