Man Is What He Reads.

Literature Sort Of Makes Your Daily Operation, Your Daily Conduct, The Management Of Your Affairs In The Society A Bit More Complex. And It Puts What You Do In Perspective, And People Don't Like To See Themselves Or Their Activities In Perspective. They Don't Feel Quite Comfortable With That. Nobody Wants To Acknowledge The Insignificance Of His Life, And That Is Very Often The Net Result Of Reading A Poem.

Persecution Mania Is Still Around. In Your Writing, In Your Exchanges With People, Meeting People Who Are In Russian Affairs, Russian Literature, Etcetera.

...in The Business Of Writing What One Accumulates Is Not Expertise But Uncertainties. Which Is But Another Name For Craft.

Tragedy, As You Know, Is Always A Fait Accompli, Whereas Terror Always Has To Do With Anticipation, With Man's Recognition Of Hisown Negative Potential--with His Sense Of What He Is Capable Of.

I Had This Fantasy Of Becoming A Neurosurgeon. You Know, The Normal Jewish Boy Fantasy, But I Wanted To Be A Neurosurgeon For Some Reason. So I Started In This Unpleasant Way. I Was An Assistant To The Coroner, Opening Up Corpses, Taking The Innards Out, Opening Skulls, Taking The Brains Out.