“If I thought that what I'm doing when I write is expressing myself, I'd junk the typewriter. Writing is a much more complicated activity that that.”

“And I love doing what I'm doing and I'd get out of it if I hated it that much. I've said it many times before: There are much worse problems in the world, people dealing with things that are phenomenally more complicated.”

“I write in order to comprehend, not to express myself.”

“On the other hand I tell my true intimates that what I write is not intended for them. In fact I'd prefer they never read it. When I write, I'm talking to somebody I intend to never meet.”

“If I cared about what you thought, I'd be writing for National Geographic or something.”

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.”

“When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.”

“I feel more alive when I'm writing than I do at any other time--except maybe when I'm making love.”

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.”

“I still have a struggle reading [dyslexia] and so I don't read much... Probably the only reason I'm painter is because I couldn't read yet I love to write, but when I write I know what I'm writing, but when I'm reading I can’t see it, because it goes from all sides of the page at once. But that's very good for printmaking.”