“It is not a single cowardice that drives us into fiction’s fantasies. We often fear that literature is a game we can’t afford to play – the product of idleness and immoral ease. In the grip of that feeling it isn’t life we pursue, but the point and purpose of life – its facility, its use.”

“It is not a single cowardice that drives us into fiction’s fantasies. We often fear that literature is a game we can’t afford to play – the product of idleness and immoral ease. In the grip of that feeling it isn’t life we pursue, but the point and purpose of life – its facility, its use.”

— William H. Gass