employers sense in me a denial of their values...they fear me. i suspect that they can see that i am forced to function in a century which i loathe.

You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.

A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.

I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.

I refuse to "look up." Optimism nauseates me. It is perverse. Since man's fall, his proper position in the universe has been one of misery.

I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality.

Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.