Occupation: Film Critic Birth: November 16, 1943
My wife and daughter have accused me of being too silent at breakfast but I don't want to talk when I don't have much to say..
In the best nonfiction, it seems to me, you're always made aware that you are being engaged with a supple mind at work. The story line or plot in non….
Most good essays are conversations with yourself - not just your decided thoughts but your dilemmas..
The dinner party is a suburban form of entertainment. Its spread in our big cities represents an insidious Fifth Column suburbanization of the metrop….
Domesticity has been a challenge for me but painful as it's been, engaging with family has been a school for reducing solipsism and increasing my und….
Hedonism can be a rational response to a difficult life..
It bothers me when I can't, for example, remember a name. I don't know if it's pre-senility or whether there are too many names packed in our brains..
... I vowed that I would always respect the right of an individual to kill himself. Whether suicide was a moral or immoral act I no longer felt sure,….
The trick is to realize that one is not important, except insofar as one’s example can serve to elucidate a more widespread human trait and make read….
Why am I attracted to all these lying quotes all of a sudden? Here’s another one. This one by Phillip Lopate: ‘(Children know it better than adults) ….
I'm fortunate in being able to find great satisfaction in my work..
Confession makes you a more trustworthy narrator..
A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion and darkness..
I am apt to be harsh in my secret judgments of others, seeing them as defective because they are not enough like me..
The knowledge that my discriminations are skewed and not always universally desirable doesn't stop me in the least from making them..
You must read a lot of personal essays - you needn't reinvent the wheel..
The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I ….
My other work, teaching, also is satisfying because I can be with people but in controlled circumstances, which aren't as likely to yield the pain of….
The essay must be artistically rendered: You must keep the reader engaged, whether with wit, conflict, mischief, and/or yes, with honesty..
Doubt is my boon companion, the faithful St. Bernard ever at my side. Whether writing essays or just going about daily life, I am constantly second-g….
I've had an enduring appreciation of psychology..