“...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.”

“Nothing is more unbearable, once has it, than freedom.”

“Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. ”

“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”

“In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.”

“There is nothing more boring, anyway, than sexual activity as an end in itself, and a great many people who came out of the closet should reconsider.”

“There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who know that he is going under in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man.”