That can happen when people die, the argument with them drops away and people so flawed while they were drawing breath that at times they were all but unbearable now assert themselves in the most appealing way, and what was least to your liking the day before yesterday becomes in the limousine behind the hearse a cause not only for sympathetic amusement but for admiration

In my childhood I led the life of a sage, when I grew up I started climbing trees

You can't write good satirical fiction in America because reality will quickly outdo anything you might invent.

All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.

Don't judge it. Just write it. Don't judge it. It's not for you to judge it.

Like all enjoyable things, you see, it has unenjoyable parts to it.

Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.