A novel should tell a story, be a pleasure to read, and at the same time it should be thought-provoking, even a bit instructive.

I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it. I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing.

There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

My own thing is in my head. I hear sounds and if I don't get them together nobody else will.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing.