To be an American (unlike being English or French or whatever) is precisely to imagine a destiny rather than to inherit one; since we have always been, insofar as we are Americans at all, inhabitants of myth rather than history.

DeLillo never seems committed to me to what he is writing. Very nice surfaces, but he's got nothing underneath.

I liked Camille Paglia. I liked her even better when I heard her talk.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's somebody doing something because I pushed them in that direction.

I used to be fond of Indian arm wrestling.

Of the female black authors, I really like Morrison's early books a lot. But she's really become so much a clone of Faulkner. He did it better.

It's funny to be a critic.