If somebody writes a book and doesn't care for the survival of that book, he's an imbecile.

There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.

The French, the Italians, the Germans, the Spanish and the English have spent centuries killing each other.

A secret is powerful when it is empty.

An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.

The good of a book lies in its being read.

The truth is an anagram of an anagram.