It's not that you aren't likable. On the contrary. You are. It's just that one wonders if you haven't made a career out of being so likable.

I do like to live in other people's homes. I enjoy being a guest. I am an inexpensive guest. When one lives in another's home he can enter into the psychic kingdom of that person.

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

[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.

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.

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