What matters finally is not the world's judgment of oneself but one's own judgment of the world.... Any writer who lacks this final arrogance will not survive very long in America.

There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt - until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is ability to articulate human relationships.

The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge.

Congress no longer declares war or makes budgets. So that's the end of the constitution as a working machine.

Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers.

The New York Times is the worst in that hardly anybody can write English over there. Most of it reads like slight translations from the German.