I've had a tough time with Pynchon. I liked him very much when I first read him. I liked him less with each book. He got denser and more complex in a way that didn't really pay off.

There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola.

Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel.

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love.

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake.

Gertrude Stein really thought of Hemingway as frail. He almost married Stein.

The text is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.

Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate.

I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis.

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans.

He's better now, Loo. He's taking care of the cats.

Victory is the result of a battle

There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last.

Like everyone else who makes the mistake of getting older, I begin each day with coffee and obituaries.

No one blames her." "That never matters," said Alec. "Not when you blame yourself.

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.

Don't go to men who are willing to kill themselves driving in circles looking for normality.

It's much more important to be interested than to be interesting.

I like to spend time in the past, with the things that have been important to me.

I don't feel depressed. I feel elated.