Seriously, I do not know what to say of this book [ Absalom, Absalom!] except that it seem to point to the final blowup of what was once a remarkable, if minor, talent… this is a penny dreadful tricked up in fancy language and given a specious depth by the expert manipulation of a series of eccentric technical tricks. The characters have no magnitude and no meaning because they have no more reality than a mince-pie nightmare.

Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking.

When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.

The German mind has a talent for making no mistakes but the very greatest.

Books act like a developing fluid on film. That is, they bring into consciousness what you didn’t know you knew.

One newspaper a day ought to be enough for anyone who still prefers to retain a little mental balance.

As between mileage and experience choose experience.