Cooper wrote a novel which is absolutely indistinguishable from Austen, completely from a female point of view, completely English, no sense that he was an American.

The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading.

Faulkner sat in our living room and read from Light in August. That was incredible.

All good criticism should be judged the way art is. You shouldn't read it the way you read history or science.

Jane Austen is at the end of the line that begins with Samuel Richardson, which takes wonder and magic out of the novel, treats not the past but the present.

Hemingway seems to be in a funny position. People nowadays can't identify with him closely as a member of their own generation, and he isn't yet historical.

Cooper wrote a novel which is absolutely indistinguishable from Austen, completely from a female point of view, completely English, no sense that he was an American.