- [when told not to be upset upon news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963] What do you mean don't be upset? My tour's been canceled!
- Way back then, they didn't think [William Shakespeare] was a good writer. He was the soap opera king of his day.
- When W. Somerset Maugham wrote a book everyone would say, "Oh, God, who is Willie writing about now?" When Gustave Flaubert wrote "Emma Bovary", twenty women said they were Emma. I start writing with a theme in my mind. Then I start asking, what kind of a personality? And because I have a good ear, I unconsciously pick up certain people. But that doesn't mean those people have led that life. Going back to Shakespeare's time, there was a Hamlet, but not such as he wrote it.
- Acting is glamor, but writing is hard work, so I'm going to be an actress.
- I don't think any novelist should be concerned with literature.
- Philip Roth is a good writer, but I wouldn't want to shake hands with him.
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