I graduated in 1952 and went to Europe, with Niki and our first child Laura, who was then a year old.

What I said about John was that he liberated me from my anxieties about writing in a correct, acceptable way.

I'd been brought up on the Upper East Side in a WASP society, which was death on crutches.

You make something. You give up expressing and start inventing.

It’s true, I had an extremely delicious life, but that was my life at home, and perhaps because I was only a child, or for whatever reasons, I found the company of others, especially other boys, quite terrifying and upsetting.

And then, when I left Princeton in the middle of my sophomore year, I went into the navy.

Write about the things that attract you. Choose your subjects the way you used to choose your toys: out of desire.