You have to distinguish between things that seemed odd when they were new but are now quite familiar, such as Ibsen and Wagner, and things that seemed crazy when they were new and seem crazy now, like 'Finnegans Wake' and Picasso.

Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.

A writer once said to me, If you ever go to America, go either to the East Coast or the West Coast: The rest is a desert full of bigots. That's what I think I'd like . . . a version of pastoral.

Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Sexual intercourse began in 1963 ... / Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ and the Beatles first LP

I have wished you something None of the others would.

Sex means nothing--just the moment of ecstasy, that flares and dies in minutes.