Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!
There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.
Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.
Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.
Envy is the central fact of American life.
You can improve your talent, but your talent is a given, a mysterious constant. You must make it the best of its kind.