Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.

Art doesn't exist if you just do what you're told. It only exists as an exercise of individual taste and freedom.

One of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.

I don't know - is everything the U.S. does a shocking embarrassment?

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

Good intentions are wicked! As far as I can see, all they lead to are lies and delusions.