Here was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become. And that was the public library.

I am inspired by human sexuality. The act itself is mechanical and holds little interest to me.

Banks introduced the installment plan. The disappearance of cash and the coming of the credit card changed the shape of life in the United States.

If we reduce social life to the smallest possible unit we will find that there is no social life in the company of one.

[Nabokov's] language is made visible . . . like a veil or transparent curtain. You cannot help seeing the curtain as you peek into the intimate rooms behind.

There are many types of participation. One can observe so intensely that one becomes part of the action, but without being an active participant.

Can the imagination, any more than the boy, be held prisoner ?" - from the foreword to the 1976 edition of "The Painted Bird