“Original sin is a very commercial idea, said Duyckinck. How do you think the Bible stays in print year after year?”

“Melville to Hawthorne: "In your stories, you seem to understand that the dramatic moments come not when a character must choose between right and wrong buy when he must choose between two wrongs.”

“Destroying oneself, he thought ruefully, should always be done at a deliberate pace.”

“I have been considering the possibility that the facts that can be ascertained about this cheese fail to satisfy because the facts themselves mask a metaphysical truth that can be known only throug...”

“Original sin is a very commercial idea,” said Duyckinck. “How do you think the Bible stays in print year after year?”

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.”

“Good literature is one key to peace. When we stop reading each other, when we stop paying attention to each other's words and stories, we too easily oppose one another.”

“There is only one motive for writing a novel: to be published and read. To me there is no distinction between the mystery novel and the novel, only between good books and bad books. A good book tak...”