There are some elements in life - above all, sexual pleasure - about which it isn't necessary to have a position.

Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.

I love to read the way people love to watch television.

It's hard not to be afraid. Be less afraid.

Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.

The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.

The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one--or both. Usually both.