The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

The only way to understand life is to live it.

We are all of us born with a unique set of potentialities, and it is our task in life to realize as many of them as possible.

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.