Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of ''meanings.''

It is not the position, but the disposition.

Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.

Self-respect. It would make me lovable. And it's the secret to good sex.

Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.

A man never forgets his body the way a woman does, because a man is pushing his body, a part of his body, forward, to make the act of love happen. He brings the jut of his body into the act of love, then takes it back, when it has had its way.

The truth is balance. However the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.