“For people never say anything the same way twice; no two of them ever say it the same. The greatest imaginative writer that ever brooded in a lavender robe and a mellowed briar in his teeth, couldn...”

“... Chicago divided your heart. Leaving you loving the joint for keeps. Yet knowing it never can love you.”

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

“A book, a true book, is the writer's confessional. For, whether he would have it so or not, he is betrayed, directly or indirectly, by his characters, into presenting publicly his innermost feelings.”

“She was neither widow nor mother: she only yearned for the dignity of a woman who had once belonged, somewhere, to somebody. She had belonged to no one, for she had never wanted chick nor child. He...”

“Never sleep with someone whose troubles are worse than your own.”

“Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do to face the fact, let us sa...”

“When reading a book, one hopes it doesnt turn into a painful process. Predictable is bad enough. Laborious is acceptable if the labor produces fruit. But with painfully bad writing, all one can do ...”

“This too to remember. If a man writes clearly enough any one can see if he fakes. If he mystifies to avoid a straight statement, which is very different from breaking so-called rules of syntax or g...”

“These poor people have learned to endure day to day economic agony. Its routine in daily life for them. They are so accustomed to facing economic pain that poverty doesnt hurt them anymore. Extreme...”

“The flowers must have been the latest generation of perennials, whose ancestors were first planted by a woman who lived in the ruins when the ruins were a raw, unpainted house inhabited by herself ...”

“The life of man is so short that ordinary people simply cannot afford to be born”

“A writer needs to ingest love to be passionate. Passion is a metabolite of love, and good writing is an active metabolite of passion.”

“It's not always so easy," she said softly."Why not? It's a part of who you are, isn't it?" he asked with all the sympathy of an asp being prodded with a stick.”

“The sky grows dark over the city as Janey tells me her story. Teh beast was supposed to help their community. Something that would look good in a brochure, I suppose. But instead, it cut loose, too...”