People genuinely happy in their choices seem less often tempted to force them on other people than those who feel martyred and broken by their lives.

The message of women's liberation is that women can love each other and ourselves against our degrading education.

Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.

If the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.

This desert town was man's own miracle of pure purposelessness.

casino owners spoke more loudly than any of the other kings of industry to defend their contribution to society. They could speak more loudly because theirs was the purest activity of civilized man. They had transcended the need for a product. They could maintain and advance life with machines that made nothing but money.

I was very frightened when I turned forty. I suddenly thought I ought to wake up and be speaking with the voice of God.