Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it. - Truman Capote

It may be normal, darling: but I'd rather be natural.

Poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't the right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.