But If Shakespeare Himself Is Maybe About

First Of All, Shakespeare Is About Pleasure And Interest. He Was From The First Moment He Actually Wrote Something For The Stage, And He Remains So.

I Was In Venice Teaching, So I Reread Henry James's "the Wings Of The Dove." I Love James.

First Of All, There Was A Volcano Of Words, An Eruption Of Words That Shakespeare Had Never Used Before That Had Never Been Used In The English Language Before. It's Astonishing. It Pours Out Of Him.

A Couple Of Years Ago I Picked Up New Yorker Writer Alma Guillermoprieto's "the Heart That Bleeds," Which Is Reportage From Latin America In The 1990s. You Can Predict That Some Books Will Give You A Thrill, But You Can't Predict The Books That Will Hit You Hard. It Is A Little Bit Like Falling In Love.

When I Was Quite Young I Came Across A Collection Of [franz] Kafka Stories And Read "the Judgment." I Was Just Floored By That Story. I Couldn't Understand It. I Still Don't. I'm Talking About Something I Read More Than 50 Years Ago. That Story Left A Little Scar On Me.