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I'm not a writer who refuses to talk about a book until I've finished.

I'm not going to write any more novels. I don't want to end up being one of these angry, bitter writers moaning that only three people are reading him. I don't want that.

For the most part, my characters don't talk to me. I like to lord over them like some kind of benevolent deity. And, for the most part, my characters go along with it. I write intense character sketches and long, play-like conversations between me and them, but they stay out of the book writing itself.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

I usually grow sick of my short-story characters and think, 'I never want to see you again.'

I don't care if the audience is 600 Saul Bellows; I'm going to knock them dead with a comedy routine. I'm out there as a missionary for literature because, if people laugh and enjoy themselves, they might actually do something as bizarre as reading the book.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

I heard David Sedaris read live recently which was a complete delight. Few writers make me laugh out loud on the bus. He does.

Well see, I'm a good enough writer that not everybody in my books talks exactly like I do.

I lived around the corner from Saul Bellow.