The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize. - Robert Hughes

In America, nostalgia for things is apt to set in before they go.

The hallmark of the minor artist is to be obsessed with style as an end in itself.

The best thing fishing taught me, I think was how to be alone. Without this ability no writer can really survive or work, and there is a strong relationship between the activity of the fisherman, letting his line down into unknown depths in the hope of catching an unseen prey (which may be worth keeping, or may not) and that of a writer trolling his memory and reflections for unexpected jags and jerks of association.