...you will do more harm than good by attempting to supplant old dogmas and customs with new dogmas. It will be the same in the end except that the old is less militant, less dangerous than a new order imposed by enthusiasts.

A superficial education would be worse than none. But a full education would open every man's eyes to the nature of human existence.

I don't think contemporary writers spend a lot of time reading each other. Particularly writers of the same nationality.

I believe there's something very salutary in, say, beating up a gay-bashing policeman. Preferably one fights through the courts, through the laws, through education, but if at a neighborhood level violence is necessary, I'm all for violence. It's the only thing Americans understand.

If satire is to be effective, the audience must be aware of the thing satirized.

Teaching has ruined more American novelists than drink.

From the age of 1 to 6 there is a small percentage that is exclusively homosexual, a small percentage heterosexual and there's a wide band in the middle of people who respond to various stimuli. A little bit here, a little more there.