Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Love is a general emotion. Marriage is exactingly specific.

There are five things that societies do: They reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. Four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they're told. But in art it doesn't work that way.

Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.

There can never be such a thing as a free market, because it is human nature to cheat, monopolize, and buy off others so as to corner the market.

With preference came point of view; with point of view, personality; with personality, uniqueness; with uniqueness, grief.

Somehow, knowing that Alzheimer's is coming mocks all one's aspirations - to tell stories, to think through certain issues as only a novel can do, to be recognised for one's accomplishments and hard work - in a way that old familiar death does not.