The education of young people is narrowing. They cannot have the scope they used to have. They are being taught in high school by people earnest, still, but maybe less well-prepared than we would want them to be - but not because they are stupid or churlish.

People do not read, by and large. They watch television.

I love baseball. What I love about baseball is that you are always waiting.

The culture is with some rapidity fearing its imagination. I don't know why. Imagination is not of interest.

I always had good students.

I always want to read Gore Vidal's nonfiction. Because everything he writes is an essay and it's worth reading.

Nonfiction, for the most part, is facts, and it's "how I was mistreated. I was mistreated. Were you mistreated? Weren't we all mistreated?"