Occupation: Film Critic Birth: November 16, 1943
I like the freedom that comes with lowered expectations..
For most of my life, I have wanted broad impact but now, at 72, I'm not so sure that's always my first priority..
I imagined a psychic pain growing inside him (myself) that demanded some physical outlet. Suicide must have been his attempt to give Pain a body, a r….
I really do like to write and when I'm not, I think, "Okay, I'll be a good citizen now" but fact is, that's secondary..
In new work, we need to see the shadow, however faint, of previous literary effort..
The essay is a wonderful medium. I might mention that some writers who longed to be novelists were better as essayists: Sontag, Baldwin, Vidal, Mary ….
Indeed, at times it's best to shut up..
Have fun writing, because it enhances both the writer's and reader's experience..
Contradictory strands create an essay that's richly ambivalent..
If someone in my family is getting emotionally bent out of shape, I've had to learn to adapt..
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….
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..
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..