The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.

People ... have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work.

Paranoids are the only ones who notice things anymore.

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

For years they have been using the role of 'sex object' as a cover while they spied out the land.

Ruefulness is one of the classical tones of American fiction. It fosters a native, deglamorized form of anxiety.