There are two books that impressed me when I was very young. One was 'The Adventures of Augie March' - the idea of having something so generous, and so adventurous and improvisatory. The other was 'The U.S.A. Trilogy,' by John Dos Passos.
More Quotes by E. L. Doctorow
Movies are too literal.
It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.