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.

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

The things I write are for those who are willing to accept a new relationship between the reader and the author.

I am curious about grownups, not children.

All my life I've been hiding.

[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.

You don't die in the United States, you underachieve.