The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man's complexity and the strength and decency of his longings.

Then it is dark; it is a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains.

For these are not as they might seem to be, the ruins of our civilization, but are temporary encampment and outposts of the civilization that we - you and I - shall build.

The irony of Christmas is always upon the poor in heart; the mystery of the solstice is always upon the rest of us.

There isn't a king or a merchant prince in the whole world that I envy, for I always knew I was born to be a child of destiny and that I was never meant to wring my living from detestable, low, degrading, mean and ordinary kinds of business.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.

Our country is the best country in the world. We are swimming in prosperity and our President is the best president in the world. We have larger apples and better cotton and faster and more beautiful machines. This makes us the greatest country in the world. Unemployment is a myth. Dissatisfaction is a fable. In preparatory school America is beautiful. It is the gem of the ocean and it is too bad. It is bad because people believe it all. Because they become indifferent. Because they marry and reproduce and vote and they know nothing.