To Listen Acutely Is To Be Powerless,

In 1952, I Had Gone To England On A Literary Pilgrimage, But What I Also Saw, Even At That Distance From The Blitz, Were Bombed-out Ruins And An Enervated Society, While The Continent Was Still, Psychologically, In The Grip Of Its Recent Atrocities.

After A Certain Number Of Years, Our Faces Become Our Biographies.

I Wanted To Use What I Was, To Be What I Was Born To Be - Not To Have A 'career', But To Be That Straightforward Obvious Unmistakable Animal, A Writer.

It Isn't The Instrument That Influences High-minded Or Low-minded; It's The Quality Of Mind Itself.

I Think About Fanaticism - Oblivion Awaits, Especially For Minor Writers, So You Have To Be A Fanatic; You Have To Be A Crank To Keep Going, But On The Other Hand, What Else Would You Do With The Rest Of Your Life? You Gotta Do Something.