The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait.

We are all tourists in history, and irony is what we win in wars.

The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait.

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.

There are few things more subtly distressing than an inappropriate gift from someone close to you.

To choose a writer for a friend is like palling around with your cardiologist, who might be musing as you talk to him that you are a sinking man. A writer's love for another writer is never quite free of malice. He may enjoy discussing your failures even more than you do. He probably sees you as tragic, like his characters - or unworthy of tragedy, which is worse.

Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want.