"The energy of American Jewish writers was so charged, so buoyant, that for a time they appeared to dominate American …"

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

"It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining ...researching ...talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that…"

"There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there’s only narrative."

"You can’t remember sex. You can remember the fact of it, and recall the setting, and even the details, but the sex of…"

"The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like."

"Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society."

"In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state…"