By the time I received my doctorate in American studies in 1957, I was in the twisted grip of a disease of our times in which the sufferer experiences an overwhelming urge to join the 'real world.' So I started working for newspapers.

don't just describe an emotion, arouse it, make them experience it, by manipulating the symbol of the emotion, and sometimes we have to come into awareness through the back door.

Everything was becoming allegorical, understood by the group mind, and especially this: "You're either on the bus...or off the bus.

I've never met an American who wanted to build an empire.

Not long after I published my first book, I quickly found I was terrible at being interviewed.

The attitude is we live and let live. This is actually an amazing change in values in a rather short time and it's an example of freedom from religion.

It's not just that reporting gives you a bigger slice of life, gives - lends verisimilitude to what you are doing - it's that it feeds the imagination.