As a writer, I've always believed that while my work and I myself are embedded in whatever period I am writing about, clearly I am sensitive to the winds that are blowing in the culture. At the same time, I have always felt that the issue was not to deal with the problem in the abstract, but to deal with the people who are in that problem. The emphasis is on the people. The general problem begins to resolve itself even before the play is finished.

The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always.

The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.

I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.

You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.

A friend of mine once said that there were only two truly national events in the history of the United States. One was the Civil War and the other one was the Depression.

Memory inevitably romanticizes, pressing reality to recede like pain.