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

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

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

I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

A bookcase is as good as a view, as much of a panorama as the sight of a city or a river. There are dawns and sunsets in books - storms and zephyrs.

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.