Who reads short stories? one is asked, and I like to think that they are read by men and women in the dentist's office, waiting to be called to the chair; they are read on transcontinental plane trips instead of watching banal and vulgar films spin out the time between our coasts; they are read by discerning and well-informed men and women who seem to feel that narrative fiction can contribute to our understanding of one another and the sometimes bewildering world around us.
John CheeverLiterature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the world.
John CheeverAll literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.
John CheeverFor lovers, touch is metamorphosis. All the parts of their bodies seem to change, and they seem to become something different and better.
John Cheever