"Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it and the writer learns to know it when he finally..."

"Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it and the writer learns to know it when he finally gets there. On one level this truth is the swing of the sentence, the beat and poise, but down deeper it's the integrity of the writer as he matches with the language. I've always seen myself in sentences. I begin to recognize myself, word by word, as I work through a sentence. The language of my books has shaped me as a man. There's a moral force in a sentence when it comes out right. It speaks the writer's will to live. The deeper I become entangled in the process of getting a sentence right in its syllables and rhythms, the more I learn about myself."

- Bill Gray, the reclusive novelist in Don DeLillo's novel Mao II. (via mills)