The Novel As We Knew It In

When I Sit At My Table To Write, I Never Know What It's Going To Be Until I'm Under Way. I Trust In Inspiration, Which Sometimes Comes And Sometimes Doesn't. But I Don't Sit Back Waiting For It. I Work Every Day.

There Are Many Reasons For Keeping A Diary: To Make A Note Of Facts That One Considers Important; To Open One's Heart, To Give Vent To One's Feelings, To Make Confessions; From The Instinct Of Economy Which Sometimes Encourages A Writer To Make Good Use Of Even The Smallest Crumbs Of His Life, So That He May Have One More Book To Publish; Or Again From Vanity And Self- Satisfaction.

Yes, One Uses What One Knows, But Autobiography Means Something Else. I Should Never Be Able To Write A Real Autobiography; I Always End By Falsifying And Fictionalizing—i’m A Liar, In Fact. That Means I’m A Novelist, After All. I Write About What I Know.

It Is What We Are Forced To Do That Forms Our Character, Not What We Do Of Our Own Free Will.

In Life There Are No Problems, That Is, Objective And External Choices; There Is Only The Life Which We Do Not Resolve As A Problem But Which We Live As An Experience, Whatever The Final Result May Be.