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.

I’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.

I can understand companionship. I can understand bought sex in the afternoon, but I cannot understand the love affair.

A writer represents his family history. My grandfather was a senator and my father served in the Roosevelt administration. In other words, I grew up in politics. This is why it seemed perfectly natural to take part in the battles of my time, and to participate in the writing of the history of my country.

The worst that can be said about pornography is that it leads not to anti-social acts but to the reading of more pornography

Christianity is such a silly religion.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place