A Whole Generation Of Writers Dined Out

A Book Is Meant Not Only To Be Read, But To Haunt You, To Importune You Like A Lover Or A Parent, To Be In Your Teeth Like A Piece Of Gristle.

The Contents Of Someone's Bookcase Are Part Of His History, Like An Ancestral Portrait.

Ruefulness Is One Of The Classical Tones Of American Fiction. It Fosters A Native, Deglamorized Form Of Anxiety.

Aphorisms Are Bad For Novels. They Stick In The Reader's Teeth.

We Don't Simply Read Books. We Become Them.