John Cheever

"I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone."

"For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty."

"The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness."

"When I remember my family, I always remember their backs. They were always indignantly leaving places."

"Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house."

"Homesickness is nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time."