The terrible thing about having New York go stale on you is that there's nowhere else. It's the top of the world.

A novel is a commodity that fulfills a certain need; people need to buy daydreams like they need to buy ice cream or aspirin or gin. They even need to buy a pinch of intellectual catnip now and then to liven up their thoughts.

But what's the good of freedom? What can you do with it? What one wants is to live well and have a beautiful house and be respected by people.

A man's got to work for more than himself and his kids to feel right

The only way to find out anything about what kinds of lives people led in any given period is to tunnel into their records and to let them speak for themselves

U.S.A. is the speech of the people

To fight oppression, and to work as best we can for a sane organization of society, we do not have to abandon the state of mind offreedom. If we do that we are letting the same thuggery in by the back door that we are fighting off in front of the house.