 Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger; I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful. |
| The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art. |
| If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself. |
| Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones. |
| I continued to protect him with my silence. |
| I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear? |
| I believe every one of us possesses a fundamental right to tell our own story. |
