I think the adjective "post-modernist" really means "mannerist." Books about books is fun but frivolous."

"Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, acknowledges art as a means of knowing the world, then art is relegated to a kind of rumpus room of the mind . . ."

"If Miss means respectably unmarried, and Mrs. respectably married, then Ms. means nudge, nudge, wink, wink."

"Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. . . . You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms."

There are lots of things that you can brush under the carpet about yourself until you're faced with somebody whose needs won't be put off.