Stanley Elkin quotes:

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

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.

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

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 is only one psychological assertion that I would insist upon. That is: the SELF takes precedence.

Writing is an exercise in sculpture, chipping away at the rock until you find the nose.

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

The furthest out is the only place to be.

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

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.

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.