I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope.

- Stanley Elkin

The peculiar dignity of men seen eating alone in restaurants on national holidays

- Stanley Elkin

I don't believe less is more. I believe that more is more. I believe that less is less, fat fat, thin thin and enough is enough.

- Stanley Elkin

The furthest out is the only place to be.

- Stanley Elkin

But it's hard to talk about art. Maybe there should be a law against it, some First Amendment gag order like crying fire in a crowded theater.

- Stanley Elkin

Life's tallest order is to keep the feelings up, to make two dollars' worth of euphoria go the distance. And life can't do that. So fiction does.

- Stanley Elkin

Like a lot of what happens in novels, inspiration is a sort of spontaneous combustion--the oily rags of the head and heart.

- Stanley Elkin

Like most people of my generation, I fell in love with the philosophy of existentialism. There is no particular religious tradition in my work. There…

- Stanley Elkin

It's fine, precise, detailed work, the infinitely small motor management of diamond cutters and safecrackers that we do in our heads.

- Stanley Elkin