E. L. Doctorow

"Murders are exciting and lift people into a heart-beating awe as religion is supposed to do, after seeing one in the street young couples will go back to bed and make love, people will cross themselves and thank God for the gift of their stuporous lives, old folks will talk to each other over cups of hot water with lemon because murders are enlivened sermons to be analyzed and considered and relished, they speak to the timid of the dangers of rebellion, murders are perceived as momentary descents of God and so provide joy and hope and righteous satisfaction to parishioners, who will talk about them for years afterward to anyone who will listen."

"In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state... It’s become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment."

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

"There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there’s only narrative."

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."

"The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like."