I don't think people like to read about themselves or about others as they really are. It would be too horrifying.

I'm an American, and always will be. I happen to love that big, awkward, sprawling country very much - and its big, awkward, sprawling people.

I think that a classic style in writing tends to remove the reader one level from the immediacy of the experience. For any normal reader, I think a colloquial style makes him feel more as though he is within the action, instead of just reading about it.

You see, as I go along, I've come to consider bravery as just about the most pernicious of virtues. Bravery is a horrible thing. The human race has it left over from the animal world and we can't get rid of it.