I Know How Deeply Slothful

Culture Means, I Think, That You Have Widened Your Experience Enough Through Reading And Through Being A Little Bit Thoughtful About These Things That It Has Changed Your Outlook In Some Ways. And Not Necessarily Made You A Better Human Being But Made You See Things.

While Reading Writers Of Great Formulatory Power — Henry James, Santayana, Proust — I Find I Can Scarcely Get Through A Page Without Having To Stop To Record Some Lapidary Sentence. Reading Henry James, For Example, I Have Muttered To Myself, "c’mon, Henry, Turn Down The Brilliance A Notch, So I Can Get Some Reading Done." I May Be One Of A Very Small Number Of People Who Have Developed Writer’s Cramp While Reading.

Food Has It Over Sex For Variety. Hedonistically, Gustatory Possibilities Are Much Broader Than Copulatory Ones.

I Just Know So Many People Who Have Six Or Seven Foreign Languages And Have Read Everything And Have Musical Training And They Are Still Dorks

By The Way, The Secret Of Speaking French Is Confidence. Whether You Are Right Or Wrong, You Don't Hesitate.