“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

“we do not write as we want but as we can”

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.”

“I never thought of myself as a writer about religion until a religion came after me.”

“Writing is prayer.”

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

“A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.”

“Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality.”

“Great writing is always rewriting or revisionism, and is founded on a reading that clears space for the self.”

“Remember that you don't write a story because you have an idea but because you have a believable character.”

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”