James Atlas

I doubt the garrulous archive bequeathed us by the tape recorder will prove as memorable as Henry James's thank-you notes.

I doubt the garrulous archive bequeathed us by the tape recorder will prove as memorable as Henry James's thank-you notes.

Biographers, we're weird. For whatever reasons of conditioning, our temporal sense is different from other people's, and I knew it read more

Biographers, we're weird. For whatever reasons of conditioning, our temporal sense is different from other people's, and I knew it would take 10 years. And that's just the way it is.

If I had to put my money on it, ... I'd say he's not going to read it. He might read more

If I had to put my money on it, ... I'd say he's not going to read it. He might leaf through it. He's not going to sit down and read it.

She's a very conservative person and has exceedingly good judgment. Usually, she's telling me, 'Don't do this! Mistake.' And this read more

She's a very conservative person and has exceedingly good judgment. Usually, she's telling me, 'Don't do this! Mistake.' And this time, she said, 'I really think you should write this book, whether he wants you to or not.' To me, this was amazing. And she was right.

He describes himself as a mild depressive, and he goes through just terrible suffering, much of it self-generated. And yet read more

He describes himself as a mild depressive, and he goes through just terrible suffering, much of it self-generated. And yet he's also an extremely buoyant person who finds a great deal in life to entertain and instruct and amuse him. He has a kind of vivacity about him. He's very funny, and he's very obsessed with certain themes.