As Soon As You Become A Writer,

Love Of Truth, Ordinary Common Truth Recognizable To Everyone, Is The Ruling Passion Of The Novel.

The Things Of This World Reveal Their Essential Absurdity When They Are Put In The Venetian Context. In The Unreal Realm Of The Canals, As In A Swiftian Lilliput, The Real World, With Its Contrivances, Appears As A Vast Folly.

... It Was Religion That Saved Me. Our Ugly Church And Parochial School Provided Me With My Only Aesthetic Outlet, In The Words Ofthe Mass And The Litanies And The Old Latin Hymns, In The Easter Lilies Around The Altar, Rosaries, Ornamented Prayer Books, Votive Lamps, Holy Cards Stamped In Gold And Decorated With Flower Wreaths And A Saint's Picture.

If Someone Tells You He Is Going To Make A 'realistic Decision', You Immediately Understand That He Has Resolved To Do Something Bad.

I Really Tried, Or So I Thought, To Avoid Lying, But It Seemed To Me That They Forced It On Me By The Difference In Their Vision Of Things, So That I Was Always Transposing Reality For Them Into Something They Could Understand.