Ours is a society in which secrets of private life that, formerly, you would have given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to get on a television show to reveal.

The ideology of capitalism makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty - of the indefinite expansion of possibility.

Passion paralyzes good taste.

Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.

A great writer has all 4 - but you can still be a good writer with only 1 and 2.

...what I write is smarter than I am. Because I can rewrite it.

This is the beauty that emerges from self-confidence, class confidence. That says, I am not born to please. I am born to be pleased.