The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

Poor John Simon - what a nightmare, to wake up in the morning and realize that you are John Simon.

This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.

When you are brought up in a zoo, you know what's going on in the monkey house. You see a couple of monkeys loose and one is President and one is Vice President, you know it's trouble. Monkeys make trouble.

I never reread a text until I have finished the first draft. Otherwise it's too discouraging.

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.

Teaching has ruined more American novelists than drink.