As to why people like Joseph Lelyveld are writing memoirs, I think they're just catching on the coattails of the trend.

I venture that those of us who are most serene when faced with the possibility of nothingness are the ones who've reached furthest to the downward and upward of their beings.

If I were ever to go mad it would be on Thanksgiving Day, that day of guilt and grace when the family hangs upon you like an ax over a sacrificial victim, like the oven's heat on that poor bird.

Art is both a vengeance against reality and a reconciliation with it.

one forgives parents as naturally as one emancipates oneself from them - usually shortly afterward.

The choice between starving and being eaten is an exotic one.

I shall never cease to marvel at the way we beg for love and tyranny.