Each story, novel, poem and play presents a vision of the world that illuminates the dark cave of life we stumble through. We can see better where we're going, what sudden drop to avoid, where the cool water is running.
If somebody writes a book and doesn't care for the survival of that book, he's an imbecile.
Since great writers communicate a vision of existence, one can't borrow their methods. The method is married to the vision.
All I'd ever wanted to do in my life was write and publish books, and woe to anyone who stood in my way.
I still believe in this country, that it can fulfill the destiny Blake and Whitman envisioned. I still believe in American poetry.
The impulse to write a novel comes from a momentary unified vision of life.
Being an author is always like being a well-run dictatorship - it's all one person speaking.
There is an enduring feeling that women can write domestic dramas but don't have the muscularity or the vision to write state-of-the-nation narratives.
I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.
We have to think bigger as writers. We have to try and change the world.
As I said earlier, there are no writers who could create a literary vision of the new reality.
