But the fast lane too gets to be a rut. - John Updike

Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.

I think “taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. I’m willing to show good taste, if I can, in somebody else’s living room, but our reading life is too short for a writer to be in any way polite. Since his words enter into another’s brain in silence and intimacy, he should be as honest and explicit as we are with ourselves.