E. L. Doctorow

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

"You can’t remember sex. You can remember the fact of it, and recall the setting, and even the details, but the sex of the sex cannot be remembered, the substantive truth of it, it is by nature self-er…"

"The writer isn’t made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century."

"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 peop…"

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

"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 themselve…"

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

"1986 audio interview with E. L. Doctorow by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio"