In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are.
Gore VidalBetween Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.
Gore Vidal