“Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.”

“It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.”

“Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.”

“The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.”

“You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.”

“Never trust a man with a lunatic wife in an attic," Richard told me. "And anyone named Heathcliff should make you suspicious.”

“If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!”

“You can write nothing of value unless you give yourself wholly to the the theme -- and when you so give yourself -- you lose appetite ans sleep -- it cannot be helped --”

“If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes.”