“I chose cultural anthropology, since it offered the greatest opportunity to write high-minded balderdash.”

“Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible”

“It was a big mistake for me to take a degree in anthropology anyway, because I can't stand primitive people — they're so stupid.”

“I'm on the New York State Council for the Arts now, and every so often some other member talks about sending notices to college English departments about some literary opportunity, and I say, "Send them to the chemistry departments, send them to the zoology departments, send them to the anthropology departments and the astronomy departments and physics departments, and all the medical and law schools. That's where the writers are most likely to be.”

“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.”

“That's the secret of how to enjoy writing and how to make yourself meet high standards," said Mrs. Berman. "You don't write for the whole world, and you don't write for ten people, or two. You write for just one person.”

“Thomas Jefferson HighSchool [..] His high school was named after a slave owner who was also one ofthe world’s greatest theoreticians on the subject of human liberty.”