In the strange heat all litigation brings to bear on things, the very process of litigation fosters the most profound misunderstandings in the world.
Renata AdlerThere follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall, and a modern satirical novel is born.
Renata AdlerIt is always self-defeating to pretend to the style of a generation younger than your own; it simply erases your own experience in history.
Renata AdlerThat 'writers write' is meant to be self-evident. People like to say it. I find it is hardly ever true. Writers drink. Writers rant. Writers phone. Writers sleep. I have met very few writers who write at all.
Renata AdlerSpeech, tennis, music, skiing, manners, love- you try them waking and perhaps balk at the jump, and then you're over. You've caught the rhythm of them once and for all, in your sleep at night. The city, of course, can wreck it. So much insomnia. So many rhythms collide. The salesgirl, the landlord, the guests, the bystanders, sixteen varieties of social circumstance in a day. Everyone has the power to call your whole life into question here. Too many people have access to your state of mind. Some people are indifferent to dislike, even relish it. Hardly anyone I know.
Renata Adler