People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

The writer's greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.

Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty...the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent humanity, the mark of cruelty.

History is not a procession of illustrious people. It's about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

James Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-- but it may be that nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history in trapped in them.