“I believe it’s something that happens when one is around art, and when one is close to books: they seep into your system, into your blood, and start to activate something in your life. We start living in the way that some of these characters live, with some sense of their sensibility. It’s almost as if the reader becomes the writer and the writer becomes the reader…”

“Nothing means more to a writer than to get a letter from a reader who has deeply connected to one of your books.”

“All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque.”

“There's something to the idea of the autonomous character. Big chunks of our wetware are devoted to simulating other people, trying to figure out if we are likely to fight or fondle them. It's unsurprising that when you ask your brain to model some other person, it rises to the task. But that's exactly what happens to a reader when you hand your book over to him: he simulates your characters in his head, trying to interpret that character's actions through his own lens.”

“The good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense—which sense I propose to develop in myself and in others whenever I have the chance ("Good Readers and Good Writers", p. 3).”

“The best books come from someplace deep inside…. Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.”

“As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.”

“When a long book succeeds, the writer and reader are not just having an affair; they are married.”

“I don't believe that there are dangerous writers: the danger of certain books is not in the books themselves but in the passions of their readers.”

“The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.”