“Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out …” — Flannery O'Connor

It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.

I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.

I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.