Quotes About Author

I wish wish I could steal the intricacies of language. But give my kids a break—remember, most of them were fed on Steinbeck's The Pearl.

My impulse now, as then, is to disagree. The majority of people in this country who haunt bookstores, go to readings and book festivals or simply read in the privacy of their homes are not traumatized exiles.

The desperate truth of Lolita's story is not the rape of a twelve-year-old by a dirty old man but the confiscation of one individual's life by another.

A good novel is one that shows complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all those characters to have a voice, in this way a novel is called democratic - not that it advocates democracy but that by nature is is so.

The room was full when I walked in, but as soon as I took my place behind the desk, my nervousness left me.

And so began the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran versus The Great Gatsby

This era is overwhelmed by violence both in rhetoric and reality, communicating not through inclusion but elimination.

It should be clear by now that when I talk about books, I'm not talking about literature of resistance but literature as resistance.

curiosity is insubordination in its purest form"—the verdict against my father came to my mind.

but I spoke passionately at the rallies; inspired by phrases I had read in novels and poems, I would weave words together into sounds of revolution.

and suffering is another bad habit," as Bellow had said in Herzog.

The fear was not of bullets: they were too immediate. I was scared of some lack, as if the future were receding from me.

Much later, when I read a sentence by Nabokov—"curiosity is insubordination in its purest form

Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.

The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education.

This pleased Onyango, for to him knowledge was the source of all the white man's power, and he wanted to make sure that his son was as educated as any white man.

I'm an old-fashioned guy. I believe in the Enlightenment, and reason, and logic, and you know, facts.

Glory and tragedy, courage and stupidity—one set of truths didn't negate the other. For war was contradiction, as was the history of America.

Later, when I became more familiar with the narrower path to happiness to be found in television and the movies, I'd become troubled by questions.

I believe in the Constitution and I will obey the Constitution of the United States. We're not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around congress.

As a strategy for picking up girls, my pseudo-intellectualism proved mostly worthless;

was ranked ninety-ninth in seniority, had yet to cast a vote, and didn't know where the restrooms were in the Capitol.

Then, during the course of our conversation, he repeated the same story that my grandfather had told, about the white man who had tried to purchase my father's forgiveness

people were moved by emotion, not facts.