One great flaw in the reforming passion is that in its eagerness to remedy social wrongs it tends to neglect, certainly to undervalue, the experience of those whose lives it wishes to improve.

Imagination is not something apart and hermetic, not a way of leaving reality behind; it is a way of engaging reality.

The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.

Taste speaks through a turn of phrase, a curl of the lip, a shrug of the shoulder: it makes an atmosphere.

Comedy speaks for civilization; farce bears an ill-concealed, sometimes unconcealed animus against civilization. Often against civility too.

Good readers make much out of little.

The cruelest thing anyone can do to Portnoy's Complaint is to read it twice.

The message of guidance that neither politics nor philosophy nor religion now seems able to provide, we look for in modern literature.

No one has ever seen the self. It has no visible shape, nor does it occupy measurable space. It is an abstraction, like other abstractions equally elusive: the individual, the mind, the society

He claimed his modest share of the general foolishness of the human race.

At its most elemental, a spell is no more than a recipe for change.

I come from the place where I am thinking 'I have put my blood on the pages.'

We made a plan at school to meet in her garage and kiss. It was like this little business deal. I kissed her and then I ran home

All the inspiration I ever needed was a phone call from a producer.

I think that is a great, great thing, to create your own identity and foster a true family spirit.

The end of rebellion is liberation, while the end of revolution is the foundation of freedom.

I should pay attention to what I know and not talk more just because I won a Nobel Prize.

Great art always transcends its culture, while lesser art merely reflects it.

I try to live with the idea that karma is a very real thing. So I put out what I want to get back.

I have values I believe in and certain things I stand for.