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Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

Some critics of my work took the view that a satirist should defer to the finer feelings of his readers and respect widely held beliefs.

Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.

The best critics do not worry about what the author might think. That would be like a detective worrying about what a suspect might think. Instead, they treat the reader as an intelligent friend, and describe the book as honestly, and as entertainingly, as possible.

A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel.

I'm a voracious reader, and I like to explore all sorts of writing without prejudice and without paying any attention to labels, conventions or silly critical fads.

Literature at its fullest takes human nature as its theme. That's the kind of writing that interests me.

I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.