Having no talent is no longer enough.

The British are absolutely hung up on class, and whenever they start to really - class for the English is like sex for Americans: They start to shake all over when the subject comes up.

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since.

I went to Europe to live in 1961. I'd never have written Julian if it hadn't been for the sequestered life that I led in Rome and the classical library at the America Academy.

The only absolute attainment is absolute abandonment.

I find in most novels no imagination at all. They seem to think the highest form of the novel is to write about marriage, because that's the most important thing there is for middle-class people.

The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death.