"The author of any work of fiction that is any good takes me so fully into his orbit that he becomes my friend; I think I'm his or her friend and I really want to be that kind of person. If on reflection I don't ask myself: "Is that really the kind of person I want to be?" "The kind of friend he or she has tried to make me—is that the kind of person I want to be?" then, of course, very serious deformations of the spirit can occur. The thing that can save us from that is to read a lot; then the deformations that one author will produce will be canceled by the others."