When I write after dark", observed Cyril Connolly, "the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose Anne Fadiman More Quotes by Anne Fadiman More Quotes From Anne Fadiman I would like to attribute my range of interests to being an independent intellectual, but although I'm independent, I'm not sure I qualify as an intellectual. Basically, I'm an old-fashioned amateur. Anne Fadiman being like independent intellectual I always wanted to be a writer, and I did want to be a novelist. In college I took a couple of classes that taught me I would never be a novelist. I discovered I had no imagination. My short stories were always thinly veiled memoir. Anne Fadiman short never me imagination