“Art serves to confront that which is outside order, to give form to the obscene. In the process, it opens it to transformations that can not only make it safe for public consumption, not a powerful vehicle through which to address the public imagination.”

“Writing is the only art form where a good number of the artists make a slice of their living criticizing one another in print, in public. ”

“It seems the door to permissiveness, the door to lewdness and vulgarity and obscenity swings only one way. It only opens farther and farther; it never seems to swing back. Individuals can choose to close it, but it is certain, historically speaking, that public appetite and public policy will not close it. No, in the moral realm the only real control you have is self-control.”

“What pleases the public is lively and vivid delineation which makes no demands on the intellect; but passionate and absolutist youth can only be enthralled by a problem.”

“The Public - a thing I cannot help looking upon as an enemy, and which I cannot address without feelings of hostility.”

“Politics is a process which should slowly bring to public all the private worries and hopes of the individual.”