E. L. Doctorow

"It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

"Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society."

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."

"I started on computers with 'Billy Bathgate,' a little orange screen with black letters. I thought it was really cool, but it actually slowed me up for a while because it's so easy to revise, I tended to stay on the same page. I've learned to discipline myself."