The writer is one who, emnbarking upon a task, does not know what to do.

The much heaves and palpitates. It is multidirectional and has a mayor.

Write about what you're afraid of.

Goals incapable of attainment have driven many a man to despair, but despair is easier to get to than that -- one need merely look out of the window, for example.

The privileged classes can afford psychoanalysis and whiskey. Whereas all we get is sermons and sour wine. This is manifestly unfair. I protest, silently.

The self cannot be escaped, but it can be, with ingenuity and hard work, distracted.

My mother studied English and drama at the University of Pennsylvania, where my father studied architecture. She was a great influence in all sorts of ways, a wicked wit.