People say, "Well, you went on television, it enlarged your readership." It did not at all, not at all. I might as well tell you, I lost some readership, because the profound audience felt somehow bothered by my too easy manner.

I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening.

- Growth has its season. There are spring and summer, but there are also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again. As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all be well.

There must be no worse punishment to a totalitarian nation than the withdrawal of capital.

I always have a sense of trembling, but so does a compass, after all.

I don't fret over lost time - I can always use the situations in a novel.

[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.