People tend to become cynical about even the most appalling crisis if it seems to be dragging on, failing to come to term.

Left-wing movements have tended to be unisex, and asexual in their imagery. Right-wing movements, however puritanical and repressive the realities they usher in, have an erotic surface. Certainly Nazism is "sexier" than communism.

In the valley of sorrow, spread your wings.

My skull is crammed with quotations.

Norman Mailer in his writings is ultimately more concerned with success than with danger; danger is only a means to success.

Modern discussions of the possibility of tragedy are not exercises in literary analysis; they are exercises in cultural diagnostics, more or less disguised.

What I expect from writers-and from myself as a writer-is to articulate a complex view of things. To incite us to be more compassionate. To orchestrate our mourning. And to celebrate ecstasy.