Basically it's true that my own life has been my chief window for life in America, beginning with my childhood and the conflicts, the struggles, the strains that I felt in my own family.

I really don't want to encourage young writers. Keep them down and out and silent is my motto.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

New York is of course many cities, and an exile does not return to the one he left.

Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

Human was the music, natural was the static.

Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold, they can no longer be worn.