We Are All Tourists In History, And

Rome Was A Poem Pressed Into Service As A City.

Paranoids Are The Only Ones Who Notice Things Anymore.

It Is One Of The Paradoxes Of American Literature That Our Writers Are Forever Looking Back With Love And Nostalgia At Lives They Couldn't Wait To Leave.

To Choose A Writer For A Friend Is Like Palling Around With Your Cardiologist, Who Might Be Musing As You Talk To Him That You Are A Sinking Man. A Writer's Love For Another Writer Is Never Quite Free Of Malice. He May Enjoy Discussing Your Failures Even More Than You Do. He Probably Sees You As Tragic, Like His Characters - Or Unworthy Of Tragedy, Which Is Worse.

Sex Almost Always Disappoints Me In Novels. Everything Can Be Said Or Done Now, And That's What I Often Find: Everything, A Feeling Of Generality Or Dispersal. But In My Experience, True Sex Is So Particular, So Peculiar To The Person Who Yearns For It. Only He Or She, And No One Else, Would Desire So Very Much That Very Person Under Those Circumstances. In Fiction, I Miss That Sense Of Terrific Specificity.