Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.

小说是一个伟大的发现：远比伽利略的望远镜或别人的无线电报更伟大。小说是人类迄今为止达到的最高表达形式。为什么？因为它是如此无法达到绝对。