It was the tiredness of time lived, with its days and days. It was the tiredness of gravity- gravity, which wants you down in the center of the earth.

Probably all writers are at some point briefly under the impression that they are in the forefront of disintegration and chaos, that they are among the first to live and work after things fall apart.

America is a younger country than England, obviously, and as self-awareness is forming in America - are we a collection of immigrants, are we a load of Italians and Germans and Jews and Brits and Irish, or are we a country with a soul and an identity? - there was a subliminal sense, they knew that the writers would be the ones who would answer those questions.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Style is not neutral; it gives moral directions.

In America, the policeman is a working-class hero. In England, the policeman is a working-class traitor.

Envy never comes to the ball dressed as envy; it comes dressed as high moral standards or distaste for materialism.