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The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.

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By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirm...more

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I had no doubt that I could do something, but what, and how? I had no contacts and I believed in nothing. And the obsession with my identity which I h...more

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The work of art is, after all, an act of faith in our ability to communicate symbolically.

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I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And ...more

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Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn't now, I couldn't give much thought to love; in order to travel far you had to be detached, and I had the long ...more

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When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.

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When we finally achieve the full right of participation in American life, what we make of it will depend upon our sense of cultural values, and our cr...more

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Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficult...more