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

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

The epic implications of being human end in more than this: We start our lives as if they were momentous stories, with a beginning, a middle and an appropriate end, only to find that they are mostly middles.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

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.

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave.

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