"Depression presents itself as a realism regarding the rottenness of the world in general and the rottenness of your l…"

"An ink bottle, which now seems impossibly quaint, was still thinkable as a symbol in 1970."

"... The struggle to rein in s and keep the planet from melting down has the feel of Kafka’s fiction. The goal has bee…"

"Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that…"

"... idea of what books and literature are for ... serious fiction ... It is for people who may be a little isolated .…"

"One of the consolations of dying... Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 year…"

"A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication the…"

"Nobody can ever quite say what's wrong exactly. But they all know it's evil. They all know 'corporate' is a dirty wor…"

"In the years when he'd worked full-time, he'd never complained about frozen or takeout or preprepared dinners. To Car…"

"All around him, millions of newly minted American millionaires were engaged in the identical pursuit of feeling extra…"