Leslie Fiedler

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

Faulkner turned out to be a great teacher. When a student asked a question ineptly, he answered the question with what the student had really wanted to know.

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love.

It's funny to be a critic.

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake.

Hemingway seems to be in a funny position. People nowadays can't identify with him closely as a member of their own generation, and he isn't yet historical.

When I was 12 years old, someone took me to see Martha Graham. It was nothing like what I thought of as serious dancing and even then I knew I was having a great experience. It was as if somebody was moving through space like no one ever did before.

I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis.

All good criticism should be judged the way art is. You shouldn't read it the way you read history or science.