I don't feel American. I do feel like a New Yorker. I think there's a real distinction there. A city allows you to become a citizen even when you're not a national.

Language upon a silvered tongue affords enchantment enough.

Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.

The publishing of a book is a worldwide event. The attempt to suppress a book is a worldwide event.

The West should be tougher on Pakistan. It is trying to play both ends against the middle - to look like the friend of the revolutionaries on the one hand and a friend of the West in the fight against terrorism. It can't be both things.

A figure of speech is a shifty thing; it can be twisted or it can be straight.

Bread and books: food for the body and food for the soul - what could be more worthy of our respect, and even love?