The Americans only like things they can label, even if it kills them. Think of those poor Latin American writers. Some of them are very good. But the "magical realism" label has absolutely ruined them. The critics are like tourists who return from a trip saying they've "done" Machu Picchu: "Okay, we've done magical realism," so now we can throw it out.

All I want is that Americans still be able to read the alphabet in a hundred years. I am not very ambitious.

It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever. It is also reasonable to assume that practically nothing that is read now will be read later.

If you want to rise in politics in the United States, there is one subject you must stay away from, and that is politics.

You can improve your talent, but your talent is a given, a mysterious constant. You must make it the best of its kind.

We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic.

Capote I truly loathed. The way you might loathe an animal. A filthy animal that has found its way into the house.