The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading. Leslie Fiedler More Quotes by Leslie Fiedler More Quotes From Leslie Fiedler I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love. Leslie Fiedler voice love long To be an American (unlike being English or French or whatever) is precisely to imagine a destiny rather than to inherit one; since we have always been, insofar as we are Americans at all, inhabitants of myth rather than history. Leslie Fiedler destiny imagine america There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola. Leslie Fiedler clothes blue america When I was 12 years old, someone took me to see Martha Graham. It was nothing like what I thought of as serious dancing and even then I knew I was having a great experience. It was as if somebody was moving through space like no one ever did before. Leslie Fiedler space years moving Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel. Leslie Fiedler gray-area novel book The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans. Leslie Fiedler situation changed black I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist. Leslie Fiedler firefighter novelists people There is a place in men's lives where pictures do in fact bleed, ghosts gibber and shriek, maidens run forever through mysterious landscapes from nameless foes; that place is, of course, the world of dreams and of the repressed guilts and fears that motivate them [i.e., the unconscious]. This world the dogmatic optimism and shallow psychology of the Age of Reason had denied; and yet this world it is the final, perhaps the essential, purpose of the gothic romance to assert. Leslie Fiedler dream running men I used to be fond of Indian arm wrestling. Leslie Fiedler affection arms wrestling When all of us are forgotten, people will still be remembering Stephen King. Leslie Fiedler kings remember people Of the female black authors, I really like Morrison's early books a lot. But she's really become so much a clone of Faulkner. He did it better. Leslie Fiedler female black book It's funny to be a critic. Leslie Fiedler critics funny Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate. Leslie Fiedler appreciated easy thinking It's so wrong when I pick up a new edition of Huckleberry Finn and I look at the last page and it doesn't say, Yours truly, at the end. Leslie Fiedler pages lasts looks One more recent novelist to come along is Cormac McCarthy. Him, I like. Leslie Fiedler novelists I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis. Leslie Fiedler tolerance analysis lows I admire Ginsberg as a poet, despite the fact that he seems not to know when he is being good and when he is bad. But he will last, or at least those poems will last. Leslie Fiedler poet lasts facts Hemingway seems to be in a funny position. People nowadays can't identify with him closely as a member of their own generation, and he isn't yet historical. Leslie Fiedler historical funny people I like that people who are not experts can not only understand but get engaged by my work. I like that Joe Paterno can read me. Bill Bradley. Leslie Fiedler engagement experts people Faulkner sat in our living room and read from Light in August. That was incredible. Leslie Fiedler august light rooms
