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.

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

We write out of revenge against reality, to dream and enter the lives of others.

Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams?

All our parents have levels of deviousness. We're driven to write about this discrepancy between the bright shining selves they invented and the monsters lurking underneath.

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

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