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You can't die with an unfinished book.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a writer who's writing books, and therefore, I don't want to die. You'd miss the end of the book wouldn't you? You can't die with an unfinished book.

Others, amounting to four novels and a mess of short stories which I did not think worth preserving, I have done my best to eliminate from the record by refusing all requests for permission to reprint them, and I hope I have done a good job of making them hard to unearth.

I will leave no memoirs.

I have a lot of novels that I haven't finished. I usually get 150 pages in and I realize it's not going anywhere. I don't publish everything I write. I must have six unfinished novels at least.

I never want to deal with a book once I'm finished writing.

Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.

I don't like to leave anything unfinished. I have an absolute need to see that every phone call is returned, every letter answered.

I feel like I have at least begun to make a contribution, but my most significant concern has to do with whether my actual art will be preserved for future generations or be erased.

Even if I knew for certain that I would never have anything published again, and would never make another cent from it, I would still keep on writing.