In a word, the consumer of mass culture is lonely, not only lonely, but spiritually impoverished.

In this world goodness is destined to be defeated. But a man must go down fighting. That is the victory. To do anything less is to be less than a man.

Have you noticed that only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real?

I had discovered that a person does not have to be this or be that or be anything, not even oneself. One is free.

Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.

Have you noticed that only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real? I remember at the time of the wreck-- people were so kind and helpful and solid. Everyone pretended that our lives until that moment had been every bit as real as the moment itself and that the future must be real too, when the truth was that our reality had been purchased only by Lyell's death. In another hour or so we had all faded out again and gone our dim ways.

The fact is I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives.