Facts are the images of history, just as images are the facts of fiction.

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

Children have a lot more to worry about from the parents who raised them than from the books they read.

It may be that the most avid readers of new fiction in America today are film producers, an indication of the trouble were in.

Banks and churches and courtrooms all depend on the appurtenances of theatre. On illusion. Banks, the illusion of stability and honourable dealings to the rot and corruption of capitalist exploitation. Churches the illusion of sacred sanctuary of purposes of pacifying social discontent. Courtrooms of course designed to promote the illusion of solemn justice. If there was true justice why would such trappings be necessary? Wouldn't a table and chairs and an ordinary room serve just as well?

One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.

And though the newspapers called the shooting the Crime of the Century, Goldman knew it was only 1906 and there were ninety-four years to go.