The axiom of conditioned repetition, like the binomial theorem, is nothing but a piece of insolence.

Why administrators are respected and schoolteachers are not: An administrator is paid a lot for doing very little, while a teacher is paid very little for doing a lot.

There comes a point, in literary objectivity, when the author's self- effacement is hard to distinguish from moral cowardice.

When the situation is hopeless, there's nothing to worry about.

My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.

In the end, for all our differences and conflicts, most women and men share the same food, work, shelter, bed, life, joy, anguish, and fate. We need each other.

In the modern world, all literary art is necessarily political -- especially that which pretends not to be.