I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.

Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.

I don't know why, but I always feel a kind of necessity to write things that are beyond acceptance, that are too offensive or something. For people to read them and say, Ha-ha-ha, very funny. No, we can't print that.

An absolutely devastating ridicule of all that is false, primitive, and vicious in current American life: the abuses of power, hero worship, aimless violence, materialistic obsession, intolerance, and every form of hypocrisy.

Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

Writing on a contract for a major studio you get the very best.