Adolescence-is it the first time in life we discover that we have something terrible to hide from those who love us?
The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that is uncontrollable – some element of the world that is essentially random and out of control.
A part of adolescence is feelimg that there’s no one else around who’s enough like youself to understand you.
Kids are beautiful, man. And they know much more than grownups think they know. Kids are just perfect people until grownups get their hands on them.
I am compulsive about writing, I need to do it the way I need sleep and exercise and food and sex; I can go without it for a while, but then I need it.
I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to get the first draft.
I’m old-fashioned, a storyteller. I’m not an analyst and I’m not an intellectual.
Almost everyone is dying to leave home, eventually; and almost everyone needs to.
What a phrase that is: ‘that explains everything!’ I know better than to think anything ‘explains everything’ today.
Human sexuality makes farcical our most serious intentions.
There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.
You don’t have to be in the habit of going to church to listen to such a literary minister; you don’t have to be a believer to be moved by Mr. Buechner’s faith.
Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.
The main character and the most important character are not always the same person – you have to know the difference.
A sentence boiled in her, but she could not yet see it clearly.
What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman’s freedom of choice, too.
Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either.
A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy.
The object of war is to survive it.
Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.