We've been an empire in decline since I can remember, Ketchum said bluntly; he wasn't kidding. We are a lost nation, Danny. Stop farting around.
The two old secretaries conversed in the manner of hostile but toothless male dogs.
She was convinced that women were as often victims of themselves as they were of men.
Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.
Oh, what a nation of moralists the Americans are! With what fervor do they relish bringing their sexual misconduct to light! A pity that they do not bring their moral outrage to bear on their presiden...
Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.
Jenny Fields felt undone, the way only a person who has been careful can feel when confronted by a mistake.
It was Wilbur Larch who was the first man in Maine to call a television what it was: an idiot box.
It happens to many teenagers-that moment when you feel full of resentment or distrust for those adults you once loved unquestioningly.
It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.
If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough.
I walked all the way through the Heldenplatz – the Plaza of Heroes – and stood where thousands of cheering fascists had greeted Hitler, once. I thought that fanatics would always have an audience; all...
He wished he could arrange a maiming as a kind of moral lesson
Hang in there, Frank!' Freud called - to the entire lobby. 'Don't let anyone tell you you're queer! You're a prince, Frank!' Freud cried. 'You're better than Rudolf!' Freud yelled to Frank. 'You're mo...
From Hester’s bedroom—even though the door was closed—we could hear her breathing; Hester’s breathing, when she’d been drinking, was something between a snore and a moan. Why does she drink so much? I...
A novel is always more complicated than it seems at the beginning. Indeed a novel should be more complicated than it seems at the beginning.
Your memory is a monster; you forget -it doesn't. It simply files thingsaway. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you...
Proposed—in
People can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.
You should wait, William, Miss Frost said. The time to read is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devasta...