Loeb has been doing wonderfully patient work, exploring the American conscience from the inside. I regard him as something of a national treasure.

The writers or artists I write about are not necessarily those I care most about (Shakespeare is still my favourite writer) but those whose work I feel has been neglected.

The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.

The romantic treatment of death asserts that people were made singular, made more interesting, by their illnesses.

Photographs trade simultaneously on the prestige of art and the magic of the real.

She felt herself needing more and more sleep. When she awoke in the morning, she thought of when she might lie down again - and when she would sleep. She started going to the movies.

When comedy fails, seriousness begins to leak back in.