The rationalist mind has always had its doubts about Venice. The watery city receives a dry inspection, as though it were a myth for the credulous- poets and honeymooners.

To be disesteemed by people you don't have much respect for is not the worst fate.

Whenever in history, equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.

The perennial wonder of Venice is to peer at herself in her canals and find that she exists-incredible as it seems. It is the same reassurance that a looking-glass offers us: the guarantee that we are real.

... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.

Be truthful... and pay attention. I would also recommend the avoidance of credit cards.

The passion for fact in a raw state is a peculiarity of the novelist.