"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

"The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him."

"It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear."

"Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them."

"It's an indication of how cynical our society has become that any kind of love story with a sad theme is automatically ridiculed as sentimental junk."

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for."

"The story of the Jews in the Bible is replete with incidents of their ingratitude to God for His gifts to them: incidents that just as repeatedly merit and receive punishment."

"I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that's been made from one of my books, I know that it isn't going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I also know it has an idea that I'll like because that idea occurred to me, and I spent a year, or a year and a half of my life working on it."